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Poised
2013/02/22
4:34am
Raffee
Iran
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Do you know any synonyms for 'poised' or the concept of 'being' quietly confident'? 

One of those times a definition I knew a word for pops up into my head, but the associated word doesn't. Jarring!

2013/02/22
7:02am
Dick
Fort Worth, TX
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I like sanguine.

2013/02/22
9:36am
EmmettRedd
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Cool can mean poised (and a few other things).

2013/02/22
6:51pm
Heimhenge
New River, AZ, USA
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Since you didn't really ask for a single word how about "self-assured" or "self-confident" ?

 

2013/02/23
12:08am
Robert
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I like 'She's got moxie ! '   though it seems associated with gangsters- could be my own misimpression from some gangsters movies.

2013/02/24
2:50am
Raffee
Iran
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Almost all of the words you mentioned match the concept, but I feel none is the one escaping  me.

I have put this forward on Ask.com and have received answers, some in common with yours, but none fit the bill; like, sangfroid.

I don't know. Maybe one of those was just what I'm after and I don't get it.

2013/02/24
5:10am
tromboniator
Alaska
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self-possessed

composed

graceful

with aplomb

with equanimity

unflappable

2013/02/24
8:01am
Robert
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My experience with thesaurus is it's a good source for learning sometimes, but never good for getting what you really want for the moment.  It's always ah yes yes yes but no no no.

2013/02/26
2:09am
Raffee
Iran
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Robert said
My experience with thesaurus is it's a good source for learning sometimes, but never good for getting what you really want for the moment.  It's always ah yes yes yes but no no no.

Agree!

2013/03/03
3:12pm
RobertB
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In the novel Atonement (Ian McEwan), a child raids the thesaurus to write what she wants to be a grown-up poem full of grown-up words : 
 
This is the tale of spontaneous Arabella
Who ran off with an extrinsic fellow.
It grieved her parents to see their firstborn
Evanesce from her home to go to Eastbourne
Without permission, to get ill and find indigence
Until she was down to her last sixpence
…
But even in grown-up books (especially English translations), one can detect thesaurus smells, though not as cute or acute.
2013/03/04
2:46am
tromboniator
Alaska
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Gosh, I often find a thesaurus to be very useful to find what I need; however, I didn't use one for my previous post.

2013/03/04
10:52am
Heimhenge
New River, AZ, USA
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Tromboniator said: Gosh, I often find a thesaurus to be very useful to find what I need

Yeah, me too. And also rhyming dictionaries. Why, just yesterday I was composing a birthday limerick for my mom. Needed a word that rhymed with "osh" for the last line and it helped me find panache (which was in my vocab but rarely used).

And when writing on MS Word, I often find myself using TOOLS / LANGUAGE / THESAURUS to find a synonym that just works better or allows me to avoid repeating myself.

I suspect Robert's comment about "thesaurus smells" relates to poorly chosen synonyms in translations, but anyone who translates should be fairly proficient in both languages or they wouldn't be in that business.

Then again, I'm reminded of the often poor (and sometimes unintentionally amusing) translations I see in instructions for products manufactured in Japan or China. Makes one wonder if those are written by real translators, or just engineers that understand the product more than they do the English language.

 

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