quaint
adjective
1.
strange in an interesting or pleasing way
- “quaint dialect words”
- “quaint streets of New Orleans, that most foreign of American cities”
2.
very strange or unusual; odd or even incongruous in character or appearance
- “the head terminating in the quaint duck bill which gives the animal its vernacular name” Bill Beatty
- “came forth a quaint and fearful sight” Sir Walter Scott
- “a quaint sense of humor”
3.
attractively old-fashioned (but not necessarily authentic)
- “houses with quaint thatched roofs”
- “a vaulted roof supporting old-time chimney pots”
Origin
From Middle English queynte, quoynte, from Anglo-Norman cointe, queinte and Old French cointe (“pretty, clever, knowing”), from Latin cognitus, past participle of cognōscō (“to know”).
Related words
Word family
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.