different between quaint vs nutty

quaint

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

quaint From the web:

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nutty

English

Etymology

nut +? -y

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /?n?ti/
  • Rhymes: -?ti

Adjective

nutty (comparative nuttier, superlative nuttiest)

  1. Containing nuts.
  2. Resembling or characteristic of nuts.
    • 1997, Mary Jo Plutt, Prevention's Stop Dieting and Lose Weight Cookbook, Rodale, ?ISBN, p. 210:
      Brown rice has had only its outer hull removed, leaving it with a beige color and a a pleasantly nutty flavor.
  3. Barmy, crazy, mad.
  4. (Britain, dated) Extravagantly fashionable
    • 1932, Frank Richards, "The Complete Outsider", The Magnet
      Skinner's friendship with his nutty pals seemed to have come to a sudden end.

Usage notes

In sense “insane”, similar to nuts, but more limited and somewhat milder: nutty means “eccentric, insane”, while “nuts” can mean either “insane” or “enthused, agitated” (“the crowd went nuts”), for which “nutty” is not used: *“the crowd went nutty”.

Synonyms

  • nuts, squirrelly
  • See also Thesaurus:insane

Related terms

  • nutter
  • nutty as a fruitcake

Translations

nutty From the web:

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