Antick

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. An eccentric act often characterized by its whimsicality can evoke curiosity while being perceived as peculiar or fanciful
2. This term refers to a behavior that is odd and marked by fanciful gestures, revealing a quirky nature
3. A curious or unusual action that strikes others as whimsically odd or strikingly bizarre

Etymology: Antic, the spelling this form has largely given way to, began as a word for the grotesque decorations of ancient Roman wall paintings. Those frescoes, unearthed in the Renaissance, mixed human figures with fanciful plants, animals and hybrid creatures in ways that struck viewers as bizarre. The Italian word "antico" meant "ancient," and the decorations were called "grottesco" after the grottoes where they were discovered, which is why the two terms sit side by side in dictionaries. From there the sense of strangeness spread from the paintings to the behaviour of people. An antic came to mean an odd, playful or outlandish action, the kind of prank or caper that seems deliberately absurd. The adjective form describes such behaviour as whimsically odd or strikingly bizarre. The word is a doublet of "antique," meaning that both come from the same Latin source, "antiquus," but reached English by different routes. "Antique" kept the sense of age, while "antic" took on the sense of oddity.