See Also: quaint(dictionary)
quaint(dictionary)

quaint (iou)



quaint adjective, adverb, & noun. ME.
[Old French cointe, queinte from Latin cognitus pa. pple of cognoscere ascertain, formed as CO- + gnoscere know.]
A. adjective.
I. Of a person: wise, clever, ingenious. Later spec., skilled in the use of fine language. ME-E18.
b. Crafty, given to scheming. ME-L17.
Of an action, scheme, device, etc.: marked by ingenuity, cleverness, or cunning. arch. ME.
Of a thing: skilfully made, ingeniously designed; elaborate. Also, beautiful, fine, elegant. Long rare. ME.
Of a person: beautiful or handsome in appearance; finely dressed, elegant. ME-L18.
Of speech, language, words, etc.: elegant, refined; clever, smart; affected. ME-M19.
Strange or odd in character or appearance; curious, mysterious. obsolete exc. as passing into sense 7. ME.
Attractively unusual or unfamiliar in character or appearance, esp. in an old-fashioned way. L18.
J. K. Jerome The quaint back streets of Kingston. D. Cecil Personalities as..quaint and idiosyncratic as characters in a novel by Dickens. Classical Quarterly However quaint this may sound today, it is a notion which has persisted well into our century.
b. Of furniture: designed in the style of art nouveau. L19.
II.
Proud, haughty. rare. Only in ME.
Dainty, fastidious; prim. L15-L17.
B. adverb. Skilfully, cunningly. rare. ME-M16.
C. noun. An unusual or strange person. rare. M20.
quaintish adjective L16.
quaintly adverb ME.
quaintness noun ME.