Studied nonchalance, effortless grace achieved by careful practice and then artfully concealed. Sprezzatura is ease as performance: the labor is real, but its traces are intentionally erased.

From Italian sprezzatura, popularized by Baldassare Castiglione in Il Cortegiano (The Book of the Courtier), describing the ideal courtly manner: to do difficult things "without effort." The concept outlived courts because it names a durable temptation, wanting skill without seeming to have sweated for it.