different between quaint vs aberrant

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: kw?nt, IPA^(key): /kwe?nt/, [k?we??nt]
• Rhymes: -e?nt

Etymology 1

From Middle English queynte, quoynte, from Anglo-Norman cointe, queinte and Old French cointe (“pretty, clever, knowing”), from Latin cognitus, past participle of cogn?sc? (“I know”).

Adjective

quaint (comparative quainter, superlative quaintest)

1. (obsolete) Of a person: cunning, crafty. [13th-19th c.]
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 2:

     But you, my Lord, were glad to be imploy'd, / To shew how queint an Orator you are.

2. (obsolete) Cleverly made; artfully contrived. [14th-19th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IX:

     describe races and games, / Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, / Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, / Bases and tinsel trappings [...].

3. (now dialectal) Strange or odd; unusual. [from 14th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.4:

     Till that there entered on the other side / A straunger knight, from whence no man could reed, / In quyent disguise, full hard to be descride […].

   • 1924, Time, 17 Nov 1924:

     What none would dispute though many smiled over was the good-humored, necessary, yet quaint omission of the writer's name from the whole consideration.

4. (obsolete) Overly discriminating or needlessly meticulous; fastidious; prim. [15th-19th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:

     She, nothing quaint / Nor 'sdeignfull of so homely fashion, / Sith brought she was now to so hard constraint, / Sate downe upon the dusty ground anon [...].

5. Pleasingly unusual; especially, having old-fashioned charm. [from 18th c.]
   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma:

     I admire all that quaint, old-fashioned politeness; it is much more to my taste than modern ease; modern ease often disgusts me.

   • 2011, Ian Sample, The Guardian, 31 Jan 2011:

     The rock is a haven for rare wildlife, a landscape where pretty hedgerows and quaint villages are bordered by a breathtaking, craggy coastline.

Synonyms

• (overly discriminating): See also Thesaurus:fastidious

Derived terms

• quaintly
• quaintness
• quaintsome

Translations

Etymology 2

A variant of cunt (possibly as a pun).

Noun

quaint (plural quaints)

1. (archaic) The vulva. [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Wife of Bath's Tale", Canterbury Tales:

     And trewely, as myne housbondes tolde me, / I hadde þe beste queynte þat myghte be.

   • 2003, Peter Ackroyd, The Clerkenwell Tales, p. 9:

     The rest looked on, horrified, as Clarice trussed up her habit and in open view placed her hand within her queynte crying, ‘The first house of Sunday belongs to the sun, and the second to Venus.’

Anagrams

• quinta

Middle English

Adjective

quaint

1. Alternative form of queynte

English

Etymology

From Latin aberr?ns, present active participle of aberr? (“go astray; err”), from ab (“from”) + err? (“to wander”). See aberr.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?.?b?.??nt/, /?æ.b?.??nt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?.?b?.??nt/, /?æ.b?.??nt/

Adjective

aberrant (comparative more aberrant, superlative most aberrant)

1. Differing from the norm. [First attested sometime between the mid 16^th century and the early 17^th century.]
2. (sometimes figuratively) Straying from the right way; deviating from morality or truth. [First attested in the mid 18^th century.]
3. (botany, zoology) Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; exceptional; abnormal. [First attested in the mid 19^th century.]

Synonyms

• (differing from the norm): abnormal, exceptional, unusual; see also Thesaurus:strange
• (straying from the right way): devious, errant, immoral; see also Thesaurus:immoral
• (deviating from the natural type):

Antonyms

• (differing from the norm): normal, regular, true; see also Thesaurus:normal
• (straying from the right way): correct, right, straight; see also Thesaurus:virtuous
• (deviating from the natural type): continuous

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

aberrant (plural aberrants)

1. A person or object that deviates from the rest of a group.
2. (biology) A group, individual, or structure that deviates from the usual or natural type, especially with an atypical chromosome number.

Synonyms

• (thing deviating from the group): deviant, freak; see also Thesaurus:anomaly
• (thing deviating from the natural type):

Translations

References

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin aberr?ns, present active participle of aberr? (“go astray; err”).

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /?.b??rant/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /?.b??ran/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /a.be?rant/

Adjective

aberrant (masculine and feminine plural aberrants)

1. aberrant
2. (pathology) aberrant (indicating an organ or other tissue which is not in its expected location)

Related terms

• aberració
• aberrància

Further reading

• “aberrant” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

French

Etymology

From Latin aberrant-, stem of aberr?ns, present active participle of aberr? (“go astray; err”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.b?.???/

Adjective

aberrant (feminine singular aberrante, masculine plural aberrants, feminine plural aberrantes)

1. aberrant, abnormal or anomalous
2. (sciences) which is impossible according to the norms or rules

Related terms

• aberrer

Further reading

• “aberrant” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German

Etymology

From Latin aberr?ns, present active participle of aberr? (“go astray; err”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ant

Adjective

aberrant (comparative aberranter, superlative am aberrantesten)

1. aberrant

Declension

Further reading

• “aberrant” in Duden online

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /a?ber.rant/, [ä?b?r?än?t?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /a?ber.rant/, [??b?r??n?t?]

Verb

aberrant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of aberr?

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin aberr?ns (“wandering, straying or deviating from”), present active participle of aberr? (“I wander, stray; aberr”), from both ab- (“from, away from”), from ab (“from, away from, of”), from Proto-Italic *ab, from Proto-Indo-European *h?epó (“off, away”) + and from err? (“I wander, astray; err”), from Proto-Italic *erz?? (“to roam, wander; go astray, waver”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?ers-eh?-yé-ti, from Proto-Indo-European *h?ers- (“to flow”). Doublet of aberrasjon.

The noun is a substantivisation of the adjective, with the same etymology.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ab??rant/
• Rhymes: -ant
• Hyphenation: ab?err?ant

Adjective

aberrant (neuter singular aberrant, definite singular and plural aberrante, comparative mer aberrant, superlative mest aberrant)

1. (especially medicine) aberrant (deviating from the ordinary or natural type; exceptional; abnormal)

Noun

aberrant m (definite singular aberranten, indefinite plural aberranter, definite plural aberrantene)

1. (botany, zoology) an aberrant (a group, individual, or structure that deviates from the usual or natural type, especially with an atypical chromosome number)

References

• “aberrant” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “aberrant” in Store norske leksikon