different between quaint vs curious

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 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