喜樂美語
  1. 1古雅的；古色古香的；別緻得有點老派

    Quaint means unusual in a way that feels attractive, and often a little old. A quaint village has small streets and old houses; a quaint habit is charming but not quite of today. The word is usually kind. Though actually, it can also sound a tiny bit superior — as if you are smiling at something small and old-fashioned from a more modern place. A long time ago, quaint could mean clever or cunning; that older sense has dropped out of ordinary talk. You will see it in travel writing and in descriptions of towns, shops, and customs. It is not a word for strange in a scary way, and it is not a fashion-magazine word for pretty.

From the word’s history

From Old French cointe 'pretty, clever, knowing', from Latin cognitus, past participle of cognōscō 'to know'.

源自古法文 cointe「漂亮、聰明」，來自拉丁文 cognitus「已知的」。

Wiktionary

組成From Middle English, from Old French cointe (“pretty, clever”), from Latin cognitus, “known” — the past form of “to know.” The path from “known / clever” to “old-fashioned and charming” was a long, slow change of meaning.

原始詞典資料6 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

quaintadj/kweɪnt/

  • 1

    obsoleteOf a person: cunning, crafty.

    • But you, my Lord, were glad to be imploy'd, / To shew how queint an Orator you are.
  • 2

    obsoleteCleverly made; artfully contrived.

    • describe races and games, / Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, / Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, / Bases and tinsel trappings […].
  • 3

    dialectalStrange or odd; unusual.

    • 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 […].
    • Lord Gifford, deep beneath the ground, / Heard Alexander's bugle sound, / And tarried not his garb to change, / But, in his wizard habit strange, / Came forth, a quaint and fearful sight; [...]
  • 4

    obsoleteOverly discriminating or needlessly meticulous; fastidious; prim.

    • 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.

    • I admire all that quaint, old-fashioned politeness; it is much more to my taste than modern ease; modern ease often disgusts me.
    • If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air, / Quaint little villages here and there, / You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.

quaintnoun/kweɪnt/

  • 1

    obsoletehistoricalThe vulva.

    • 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.’

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。