pa·nache \pəˈnash, -näsh\noun (-s) Etymology: earlier pennache, from Middle French, from Old Italian pennacchio, from Late Latin pinnaculum small wing — more at pinnacle 1.: a tuft (as of feathers) used as a headdress or an ornament on a helmet 2.: dash or flamboyance in style and action : swagger, verve < grew progressively more windy and histrionic without ever recapturing the vitality and panache of the early period — Times Literary Supplement >