QUAINTER
Adjective
quainter
comparative form of quaint
Anagrams
• Quranite, antiquer, quartine
Source: Wiktionary
QUAINT
Quaint, a. Etym: [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning,
pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L.
cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to know; con + noscere (for
gnoscere) to know. See Know, and cf. Acquaint, Cognition.]
1. Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [Obs.]
Clerks be full subtle and full quaint. Chaucer.
2. Characterized by ingenuity or art; finely fashioned; skillfully
wrought; elegant; graceful; nice; neat. [Archaic] " The queynte
ring." " His queynte spear." Chaucer. " A shepherd young quaint."
Chapman.
Every look was coy and wondrous quaint. Spenser.
To show bow quaint an orator you are. Shak.
3. Curious and fanciful; affected; odd; whimsical; antique; archaic;
singular; unusual; as, quaint architecture; a quaint expression.
Some stroke of quaint yet simple pleasantry. Macaulay.
An old, long-faced, long-bodied servant in quaint livery. W. Irving.
Syn.
– Quaint, Odd, Antique. Antique is applied to that which has come
down from the ancients, or which is made to imitate some ancient work
of art. Odd implies disharmony, incongruity, or unevenness. An odd
thing or person is an exception to general rules of calculation and
procedure, or expectation and common experience. In the current use
of quaint, the two ideas of odd and antique are combined, and the
word is commonly applied to that which is pleasing by reason of both
these qualities. Thus, we speak of the quaint architecture of many
old buildings in London; or a quaint expression, uniting at once the
antique and the fanciful.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition