quaint

The definition of quaint is something small, old fashioned or charming in a good way.

(adjective)

An example of quaint is a little old cottage in the country.

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See quaint in Webster's New World College Dictionary

adjective

  1. Obsolete clever or skilled
  2. Now Rare wrought with skill; ingenious
  3. unusual or old-fashioned in a pleasing way
  4. singular; unusual; curious
  5. fanciful; whimsical

Origin: ME cointe < OFr < L cognitus, known: see cognition

Related Forms:

See quaint in American Heritage Dictionary 4

adjective quaint·er, quaint·est
  1. Charmingly odd, especially in an old-fashioned way: “Sarah Orne Jewett . . . was dismissed by one critic as merely a New England old maid who wrote quaint, plotless sketches of late 19th-century coastal Maine” (James McManus).
  2. Unfamiliar or unusual in character; strange: quaint dialect words. See Synonyms at strange.
  3. Cleverly made; artful.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English, clever, cunning, peculiar

Origin: , from Old French queinte, cointe

Origin: , from Latin cognitus

Origin: , past participle of cognōscere, to learn; see cognition

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Related Forms:

  • quaintˈly adverb
  • quaintˈness noun

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