idiosyncrasy
idio·syn·crasy (id′ē ō siŋ′krə sē, -sin′-)
noun pl. -·sies
- the temperament or mental constitution peculiar to a person or group
- any personal peculiarity, mannerism, etc.
- an individual reaction to a drug, food, etc. that is different from the reaction of most people
Etymology: Gr idiosynkrasia < idio-, one's own, peculiar (see idio-) + synkrasis, a mixing together, tempering < synkerannynai, to mix together < syn-, together + kerannynai, to mix < IE *ere-, to mix > rare, Ger rühren, to stir
idiosyncrasy
n.
idiosyncrasy refers to any personal mannerism or peculiarity and connotes strong individuality the idiosyncrasies of a writer's style; eccentricity implies considerable deviation from what is normal or customary and connotes whimsicality or even mental aberration his eccentricity of wearing overshoes in the summer
Preposition: of
- life: He also provided interesting company talking about the idiosyncrasies of canyon life.
- language: He goes out of his way to help with their difficulties and has great patience when explaining the idiosyncrasies of the English language.
- culture: This work contains the author's thoughts on various things from the presidency of Tony Blair to the idiosyncrasies of modern British culture.
- spelling: Nonetheless, there are idiosyncrasies of spelling and punctuation that make the task of transcribing the letters as faithfully as possible a challenging one!
- style: Of course not, other than that both are using the same language and have the same idiosyncrasies of style.
Converse of object
- have: Browsers may also have idiosyncrasies which prevent certain things working.
- know: The facilitator must know the idiosyncrasies of whatever tool they are using well.
- explain: He goes out of his way to help with their difficulties and has great patience when explaining the idiosyncrasies of the English language.
- display: Jo Cameron adds that graduates can learn from individual idiosyncrasies displayed on the program.
Adjective modifier
- personal: Carol is less coy about her personal idiosyncrasies, laying bare even those that took place in later life.
- own: Every ethnic region has its own idiosyncrasies; it is up to us to learn them.
- little: He is now spending time getting to know his charges and all their little idiosyncrasies.
- local: These chains have to " trade off " economies resulting from common practices against loss of sales from local idiosyncrasies.
- other: I so wish football would stop being swayed by royal events, news events and 101 other idiosyncrasies.
- few: Klaw, Erlanger and their immediate associates felt themselves to be kings and began to exhibit a few supposedly royal idiosyncrasies.
Browse dictionary entries near idiosyncrasy
- idioplasm
- idiopathic
- idiomorphic
- idiomatic
- idiom
- idiolect
- idiocy
- idioblast
- idio-
- IDF
- idiosyncratic
- idiot
- idiot box
- idiot light
- idiot savant
- idiotic
- idiotism
- idle
- idleness
- idler
