Queynte

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Describing someone who is clever, ingenious or skilful in craft ; odd, unfamiliar or peculiar in appearance or manner
2. Skilled and adroit in doing something ; unusual, curious or out of the ordinary in a way that draws attention
3. Showing cunning and dexterity in making or doing things ; strange, unfamiliar or wonderfully unusual to the eye

Etymology: Today "quaint" suggests charmingly old-fashioned, but for centuries it meant nearly the opposite. Its earliest English sense was "skilful" or "clever," and "queynte" in Middle English could describe something cleverly made or ingeniously designed. The sense then drifted toward "strange" or "unfamiliar," and only later came to mean "pleasingly odd or old-fashioned." The word came into English from Anglo-Norman and Old French "cointe," meaning "clever" or "elegant." That word descends from Latin "cognitus," "known" or "acquainted," the past participle of "cognoscere," "to know." So a word about knowing eventually became one about skill, and then, through unfamiliarity, about quaintness.