Audacity
Etymology
From Latin "audacia" (boldness), from "audax" (daring), from "audere" (to dare). English took it in the 15th century, and it has always carried a double charge — courage you admire and impertinence you resent.
noun · /aw-DASS-ih-tee/
Bold daring that ignores the usual limits of caution or propriety.
What it names
Nerve of a specific flavor — the kind that impresses and offends at once, admiration and outrage folded together.
Example
She had the audacity to correct the senator on his own bill, and the room could not decide whether to gasp or applaud.
Related idea
Audacity dares against odds and can be a virtue; temerity is the same nerve stripped of judgment — rashness that ignores real danger.