different between incongruous vs curious

English

Etymology

From Latin incongruus, from in- (“not”) + congruus (“congruent”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?k?n.???u.?s/, /?n?k??.??u.?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?n?k?n.??u.?s/, /???k??.??u.?s/

Adjective

incongruous (comparative more incongruous, superlative most incongruous)

1. Not similar or congruent; not matching or fitting in.
   • 1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette, ch. 34:

     [P]erhaps he thought me, with my basket of summer fruit, and my lack of the dignity age confers, an incongruous figure in such a scene.

   • 1912, Jack London, A Son Of The Sun, ch. 1:

     Ardent suns had likewise tanned his face till it was swarthy as a Spaniard's. The yellow mustache appeared incongruous in the midst of such swarthiness.

   • 2014, Daniel Taylor, England and Wayne Rooney see off Scotland in their own back yard (in The Guardian, 18 November 2014)[1]

     For a few moments England toyed with the idea of making it a more difficult night than necessary. Scotland had scored a goal that seemed incongruous to the rest of their performance and, briefly, a fiercely partisan crowd sensed an improbable comeback.

2. (mathematics) Of two numbers, with respect to a third, such that their difference can not be divided by it without a remainder.

   20 and 25 are incongruous with respect to 4.

Derived terms

• incongruously
• incongruousness

Synonyms

• incongruitous

Related terms

• incongruence
• incongruent
• incongruity

Translations

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English curious (“careful, meticulous; ingenious, skilful; expert, learned; concerned about (something); eager; curious, inquisitive; prying; carefully or skilfully made; exquisite, fine; sophisticated; recondite; magic or occult; absorbing, painstaking”) [and other forms], from Old French curios, curius (modern French curieux (“curious, inquisitive; interesting, quaint, unusual”)), and its etymon Latin c?ri?sus (“careful; complicated, elaborate; careworn; curious, inquisitive; meddlesome, prying”), from c?ra (“care, concern; anxiety; sorrow; attention; administration, management; command, office; guardianship”) (from Proto-Indo-European *k?eys- (“to heed”)) + -?sus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). The English word is cognate with Italian curioso (“curious, inquisitive”), Occitan curios, Portuguese curioso (“curious, inquisitive; odd, out of the ordinary”), Spanish curioso (“curious, inquisitive; interesting; odd, strange; quaint”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kj??.?i.?s/, /?kj??-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kj?.?i.?s/, /?kj?.i.?s/
• Rhymes: -???i?s
• Hyphenation: cu?ri?ous

Adjective

curious (comparative more curious or curiouser, superlative most curious or curiousest)

1. Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying.

   Synonyms: enquiring, inquiring; (obsolete) exquisitive; investigative; (rare) peery

   Antonyms: incurious, noncurious, uncurious
2. Caused by curiosity.
3. Leading one to ask questions about; somewhat odd, out of the ordinary, or unusual.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:strange

   Antonym: uncurious
4. (obsolete) Careful, fastidious, particular; (specifically) demanding a high standard of excellence, difficult to satisfy.
5. (obsolete) Carefully or artfully constructed; made with great elegance or skill.

Usage notes

The comparative and superlative forms curiouser and curiousest are regarded as informal or nonstandard.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

curi(um) +? -ous

Adjective

curious (not comparable)

1. (chemistry, rare) Containing or pertaining to trivalent curium.

References

Further reading

• curiosity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• curious (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia