Diplomacy is managing relations between countries by talking rather than fighting. Quiet diplomacy, a triumph of diplomacy, diplomacy failed.
It is conducted by diplomats through embassies, and diplomatic immunity protects them from local prosecution. Shuttle diplomacy means a mediator travelling between two sides. The second sense is personal skill in handling people without giving offence — she handled it with great diplomacy — and it is high praise. Note diplomatic, which carries both senses, and diplomatically.
1noundiplomacyManaging relations between countries by talking.
“Diplomacy kept it quiet for about eleven months.”
2nounskillSkill in handling people without giving offence.
“It took a great deal of diplomacy and one very careful email.”
diplomacy is a way of managing relations.
Greek diploma meant a folded document — the letter of authority a state envoy carried. Diplomacy is named after the paperwork, and the fold is the same one in diploma, the certificate.
Latin
diploma — a letter of recommendation or authority
French
diplomatie
English, today
diplomacy
From French diplomatie, a a back-formation from diplomatique, ultimately from Latin diploma (“a letter of recommendation or authority”); see diploma.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA