penchant means taste, liking, or inclination (for).
penchant is pronounced /ˈpɒnʃɒn/.
Why “penchant” is a great word
A strong and habitual inclination or taste for something. From the French penchant, meaning 'inclined,' the present participle of pencher ('to tilt, to lean'), from Old French pengier, from Vulgar Latin *pendicāre, a derivative of Latin pendere ('to hang'), first attested in English in the 1670s. Unlike a vague 'leaning' or an innate, often unsavory 'proclivity,' a penchant is a specific, pronounced, and often acquired tilt of the self. It is the collector's eye for a particular porcelain, the traveler's automatic choice of a window seat, the hand reaching unthinking for a worn book—a settled preference that, having once been chosen, now seems to choose us, the angle at which one hangs in the world.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French penchant, present participle of pencher (“to tilt, to lean”), from Middle French, from Old French pengier (“to tilt, be out of line”), from Vulgar Latin *pendicāre, a derivative of Latin pendere (“to hang”).
noun
- Taste, liking, or inclination (for).e.g.“He has a penchant for fine wine.”
- A card game resembling bezique.
- In the game of penchant, any queen and jack of different suits held at the same time.