different between vagary vs kink

English

Etymology

From Latin vagus (“wandering”).

Pronunciation

• (General American, formerly) IPA^(key): /v?????i/
• (General American, now commonly) IPA^(key): /?ve????i/

Noun

vagary (plural vagaries)

1. An erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.
   • 1871, Charles Kingsley, At Last: A Christmas In The West Indies, ch. 8:

     It now turns out that the Pitch Lake, like most other things, owes its appearance on the surface to no convulsion or vagary at all, but to a most slow, orderly, and respectable process of nature, by which buried vegetable matter, which would have become peat, and finally brown coal, in a temperate climate, becomes, under the hot tropic soil, asphalt and oil.
2. An impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice or whim.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:whim

   • 1905, Jack London, War of the Classes, Preface:

     And then came the day when my socialism grew respectable,—still a vagary of youth, it was held, but romantically respectable.

Derived terms

• vagarity
• vagarious

Related terms

• vague
• vagrant
• vagabond

Translations

See also

• vaguery

Anagrams

• Varyag

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

From Middle English kinken, kynken, from Old English *cincian ("to laugh"; attested by cincung (“a fit of laughter”)), from Proto-West Germanic *kink?n, from Proto-Germanic *kink?n? (“to laugh”), from Proto-Indo-European *gang- (“to mock, jeer, deride”), related to Old English canc (“jeering, scorn, derision”). Cognate with Dutch kinken (“to kink, cough”).

Alternative forms

• chink

Verb

kink (third-person singular simple present kinks, present participle kinking, simple past and past participle kinked)

1. To laugh loudly.
2. To gasp for breath as in a severe fit of coughing.

Noun

kink (plural kinks)

1. (Scotland, dialect) A convulsive fit of coughing or laughter; a sonorous indraft of breath; a whoop; a gasp of breath caused by laughing, coughing, or crying.

Etymology 2

From Dutch kink (“a twist or curl in a rope”), from Proto-Germanic *kenk-, *keng- (“to bend, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *geng?- (“to turn, wind, braid, weave”). Compare Middle Low German kinke (“spiral screw, coil”), Old Norse kikna (“to bend backwards, sink at the knee”), Icelandic kengur (“a bend or bight; a metal crook”). Probably related to kick.

Alternative forms

• k1nk, k!nk, k/nk, k*nk (bowdlerizations)

Noun

kink (countable and uncountable, plural kinks)

1. A tight curl, twist, or bend in a length of thin material, hair etc.

   We couldn't get enough water to put out the fire because of a kink in the hose.

2. A difficulty or flaw that is likely to impede operation, as in a plan or system.

   They had planned to open another shop downtown, but their plan had a few kinks.

3. An unreasonable notion; a crotchet; a whim; a caprice.
   • 1856, Frederick Swartwout Cozzens, The Sparrowgrass Papers

     Never a Yankee was born or bred / Without that peculiar kink in his head / By which he could turn the smallest amount / Of whatever he had to the best account.

4. (informal, countable or uncountable) Peculiarity or deviation in sexual behaviour or taste.
   • 2013, Alison Tyler, H Is for Hardcore, page 13:

     To top it all off, Lynn is into kink. Last night she was really into kink. It's a good thing that today is my day off because I need the time to recuperate and think things over.

5. (mathematics) A positive 1-soliton solution to the Sine–Gordon equation

Antonyms

• (unusual sexuality): normophilia

Related vocabulary

• BDSM
• fetish

Derived terms

• kink meme
• sun kink
• kinkshame
• YKINMK

Translations

Verb

kink (third-person singular simple present kinks, present participle kinking, simple past and past participle kinked)

1. (transitive) To form a kink or twist.
2. (intransitive) To be formed into a kink or twist.

Translations

Derived terms

References

Anagrams

• Knik

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch *kinc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??k/
• Hyphenation: kink
• Rhymes: -??k

Noun

kink f (plural kinken, diminutive kinkje n)

1. kink (curl, twist, or bend)

Derived terms

• kinkhoorn

Estonian

Etymology 1

From Low German schenke.

Noun

kink (genitive kingi, partitive kinki)

1. gift
2. favour/favor

Inflection

Derived terms

• jõulukink

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)Cognate to dialectal Finnish kenkku.

Noun

kink (genitive kingu, partitive kinku)

1. small mound, knoll

Inflection

Derived terms

• häbemekink

Hungarian

Etymology

From ki (“who”) +? -nk (“our, of ours”, possessive suffix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?ki?k]
• Hyphenation: kink

Pronoun

kink

1. first-person plural single-possession possessive of ki

Declension

Yola

Alternative forms

• kick

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

kink (simple past kinket)

1. to toss or trip

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN