different between curiosity vs eccentricity

English

Etymology

From Middle English curiosite, variant of curiouste, from Anglo-Norman curiouseté, from Latin c?ri?sit?tem, from c?ri?sus. Surface analysis curious +? -ity; see -osity.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kyoo?r"??s'?t?, IPA^(key): /?kj??????s?ti/

Noun

curiosity (countable and uncountable, plural curiosities)

1. (uncountable) Inquisitiveness; the tendency to ask and learn about things by asking questions, investigating, or exploring. [from 17th c.]

   Synonym: inquisitiveness

   Antonym: ignorance

   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

     It was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of his friend's quarters; and he eyed the dingy, windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre
2. A unique or extraordinary object which arouses interest. [from 17th c.]

3. (obsolete) Careful, delicate construction; fine workmanship, delicacy of building. [16th-19th c.]
   • 1631, John Smith, Advertisements, in Kupperman 1988, p. 81:

     wee built a homely thing like a barne, set upon Cratchets, covered with rafts, sedge, and earth, so also was the walls; the best of our houses of the like curiosity, but the most part farre much worse workmanship […]

Derived terms

• curiosity killed the cat

Related terms

• curious

Translations

References

English

Etymology

eccentric +? -ity

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /??k.s?n?t??s.?.ti/, [??k.s?n?t??s.?.?i]

Noun

eccentricity (countable and uncountable, plural eccentricities)

1. The quality of being eccentric or odd; any eccentric behaviour.
2. (mathematics) The ratio, constant for any particular conic section, of the distance of a point from the focus to its distance from the directrix.

3. (astronomy) The eccentricity of the conic section (usually an ellipse) defined by the orbit of a given object around a reference object (such as that of a planet around the sun).

Translations