quaint means of a person: cunning, crafty. It carries an Arena rating of 1534, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, quaint ranks #1,388 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #1,801 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,148 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,960 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
quaint is pronounced /kweɪnt/.
Why “quaint” is a great word
Having an old-fashioned, unusual, or curiously pleasing charm. Its lineage flows from Middle English queynte, quoynte, through Anglo-Norman cointe and Old French cointe ("pretty, clever, knowing"), from Latin cognitus, past participle of cognōscō ("to know"). Unlike "picturesque," which frames a scene for visual consumption, or "archaic," which denotes a lifeless artifact, "quaint" implies a living, small-scale charm observed with a tender smile. It is the precisely uneven cobble in a sunken lane, the soft chime of a forgotten shop bell, and the gentle absurdity of a hand-painted sign swinging in a sea breeze—a quiet testament to the endurance of the idiosyncratic in a world polished smooth.
Etymology
From Middle English queynte, quoynte, from Anglo-Norman cointe, queinte and Old French cointe (“pretty, clever, knowing”), from Latin cognitus, past participle of cognōscō (“to know”).
adj
- Of a person: cunning, crafty.e.g.“But you, my Lord, were glad to be imploy'd, / To shew how queint an Orator you are.” — 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[w
- Cleverly made; artfully contrived.e.g.“describe races and games, / Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, / Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, / Bases and tinsel trappings […].” — 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished a
- Strange or odd; unusual.e.g.“Till that there entered on the other side / A straunger knight, from whence no man could reed, / In quyent disguise, full hard to be descride […].” — 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Overly discriminating or needlessly meticulous; fastidious; prim.e.g.“She, nothing quaint / Nor 'sdeignfull of so homely fashion, / Sith brought she was now to so hard constraint, / Sate downe upon the dusty ground anon […].” — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Pleasingly unusual; especially, having old-fashioned charm.e.g.“I admire all that quaint, old-fashioned politeness; it is much more to my taste than modern ease; modern ease often disgusts me.” — 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:
noun
- The vulva.e.g.“The rest looked on, horrified, as Clarice trussed up her habit and in open view placed her hand within her queynte[,] crying, ‘The first house of Sunday belongs to the sun, and the second to Venus.’” — 2003, Peter Ackroyd, The Clerkenwell Tales, page 9:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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