Other forms: finesses
Finesse is delicate skill in handling a tricky matter. Handle it with finesse, lack finesse, a touch of finesse.
It means doing something difficult without force showing, and it is praise for the manner rather than the result. As a verb it means to get round a problem cleverly. In bridge a finesse is a specific play, trying to win a trick with a lower card.
1nounfinesseDelicate skill in handling a tricky matter.
“She handled the angry customer with great finesse and soon calmed him down.”
finesse is a skill.
French finesse means fineness or delicacy, from fin, fine, from Latin finis, an end or limit.
Latin
fīnis — an end
Old French
finesse — a fineness; a delicacy; slenderness
Middle French
finesse
Middle English
finesse — a degree of excellence; (of metal) fineness, purity
English, today
finesse
Built from
From Middle English finesse (“a degree of excellence; (of metal) fineness, purity”), from Middle French finesse, Old French finesse (“a fineness; a delicacy; slenderness”), from fine, fin (“fine, thin”) (from Latin fīnis (“an end”); compare Middle English fīn (“of superior quality; precious, valuable; admirable, pleasing; pure, refined; fineness, purity; delicate, exquisite, fine; sharp, thin”)) + -esse. The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA