Quirks

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Distinctive and unusual characteristics or behaviors that reveal an individual's personality
2. Eccentric behaviors or traits that express a person's unique identity
3. Features or behaviors that are strikingly peculiar and show someone's individuality

Etymology: The noun "quirk" first appears in English in the 1540s, but its ancestry is murky. One lead runs through Old Norse "kverk," meaning a bend or angle, or the throat, and a related verb "kvirkja," meaning to choke or strangle. That gives a surprisingly physical picture: a twist or constriction in the body, the sort of hitch that catches your breath. The sense of a whim or fancy developed from a dialect word that meant a fuss, a huff, or a peevish complaint, and that dialect word was itself linked to the old verb for choking. A quirk, in other words, began as something that caught in the throat and only later became a sudden twist of mood or behaviour. The noun's "odd habit" sense grew out of that notion of an unexpected turn in a person's character. "Quirks" is simply the plural of this noun. Some dictionaries have long doubted any connection with "queer," so that link is best set aside.

Synonyms: peculiarities, idiosyncrasies, traits, eccentricities, foibles

Antonyms: normalities, conformities, uniformities, standard behaviors, regularities