I've Found It! I've Found It!

A loooooong time ago, I wrote about how I knew there was a word that meant something along the lines of "the beauty or elegance of a piece of writing." (It was so long ago, I can't find the relevant post with a cursory search; if you remember when it was, let me know, so I can go and see if I'm totally embarrassing myself by totally misremembering what I wrote.) There were a few suggestions by kind commenters, but I never really figured out the word I was talking about. Quite by chance, however, I think I've stumbled upon it at Rogueclassicism's Classical Words of the Day feature! "Concinnity"! It's a beautiful word.

concinnity • \kun-SIH-nuh-tee\ • noun

: harmony or elegance of design especially of literary style in adaptation of parts to a whole or to each other

Example Sentence:

Julia maintains that no modern play can rival the concinnity of the classical Greek tragedies.

Did you know?

The Romans apparently found perfect harmony in a well-mixed drink. The cocktail in question was a beverage they called "cinnus," and so agreeably concordant did they find it that its name apparently inspired the formation of "concinnare," a verb meaning "to place fitly together." "Concinnare" gave rise to "concinnus," meaning "skillfully put together," which in turn fermented into "concinnitas." English speakers added the word to our mix in the 1500s as "concinnity."