different between quaint vs exotic

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

Borrowed from Middle French exotique, from Latin ex?ticus, from Ancient Greek ???????? (ex?tikós, “foreign”, literally “from the outside”), from ???- (ex?-, “outside”), from ?? (ex, “out of”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???z?t?k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???z?t?k/
• Rhymes: -?t?k

Adjective

exotic (comparative more exotic, superlative most exotic)

1. Foreign, especially in an exciting way.

   • Nothing was so splendid and exotic as the ambassador.
2. Non-native to the ecosystem.
3. (finance) Being or relating to an option with features that make it more complex than commonly traded options.

Derived terms

Related terms

• exotica

Translations

Noun

exotic (plural exotics)

1. (biology) An organism that is exotic to an environment.
   • c.1948, George Orwell, Such, Such Were the Joys

     There were a few exotics among them — some South American boys, sons of Argentine beef barons, one or two Russians, and even a Siamese prince, or someone who was described as a prince.

2. An exotic dancer; a stripteaser.
3. (physics) Any exotic particle.

Derived terms

• invasive exotic

Translations

Further reading

• Exotic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Exotic in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• coxite, excito-

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin ex?ticus.

Pronunciation

Adjective

exotic m (feminine singular exotica, masculine plural exotics, feminine plural exoticas)

1. exotic

Romanian

Etymology

From French exotique, from Latin exoticus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e??zo.tik/

Adjective

exotic m or n (feminine singular exotic?, masculine plural exotici, feminine and neuter plural exotice)

1. exotic

Declension