History and Etymology for quaint Middle English queinte, cointe , from Anglo-French, clever, expert, from Latin cognitus , past participle of cognoscere to know — more at cognition. Learn More About quaint. Time Traveler for quaint The first known use of quaint was in the 13th century See more words from the same century. Statistics for quaint Look-up Popularity.
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It is a rhyming description of the province of Nordland, its natural features, its trades, its advantages and its drawbacks, given in dancing verse of the most breathless kind, and full of humour, fancy, wit and quaint learning. Just as the background of Christianity was formed by the Hebrew scriptures, and just as the Hebrew legends of the creation became the basis of its scheme of human redemption from evil, so the Avesta, with its quaint cosmogony and myths, formed the background of Mani's new faith.
The tasteless style of its modern buildings is out of harmony with the quaint beauty of the other monasteries. The quaint characteristics of the hilly site of the old town have largely been destroyed by modern improvements, which began in and were not quite completed in Other interesting landmarks are "Woodland" formerly called "Bloomsbury Court" , built early in the 18th century by William Trent, and said to have sheltered, at various times, Washington, Lafayette and Rochambeau; the "Hermitage," erected some time before the War of Independence; and "Bow Hill," in the suburbs of the city, a quaint old colonial mansion which for some time before was a home of Joseph Bonaparte.
At the present time the Dutch flag flies nowhere on the mainland of India, though the quaint houses and regular canals at Chinsura, Negapatam, Jaffna, and many petty ports on the Coromandel and Malabar coasts remind the traveller of familiar scenes in the Netherlands. Josippon subsequently appeared in many forms, one of the most popular being in Yiddish JudaeoGerman , with quaint illustrations. A large spinning-mill and coalpits lend a modern touch in singular contrast with the quaint , old-world aspect of the place.
Their quaint shrubbery and old-fashioned setting render them attractive. In connexion with Purim many quaint customs were introduced by the Jews of later times. Hsiian Tsang, the famous Chinese pilgrim, tells a quaint story of a Dhammapala of Kanchipura the modern Konjevaram. There are several quaint old houses, with high gables, in the market-place, in the middle of which stand a Roland column, of about , and a bronze figure known as the Butterjungfer butter-girl , of uncertain origin and meaning, but now regarded as the palladium of the town.
Some of the quaint old houses which have escaped the numerous fires that have visited the town are elaborately adorned with wood-carving. The real rise begins at Cairo about the summer solstice, or a few days later, and early in July a crier in each district of the city begins to go his daily rounds, announcing, in a quaint chant, the increase of water in the nilometer of the island of Roda.
Dordrecht presents a picturesque appearance with its busy quays and numerous canals and windmills, its quaint streets and curiously gabled houses. Here the Bashgol and Chitral valleys unite and the boundary passes to the water-divide east of the Chitral river, after crossing it by a spur which leaves the insignificant Arnawai valley to the north; along this water-divide it extends to a point nearly opposite the quaint old town of Pashat in the Kunar valley the Chitral river has become the Kunar in its course southwards , and then stretches away in an uneven and undefined line, dividing certain sections of the Mohmands from each other by hypothetical landmarks, till it strikes the Kabul river near Palosi.
The buildings of this market are Dutch in style and have a quaint clock tower. Among the churches mention must be made of the Zuiderkerk, or South church, with a conspicuous tower ; and the Westerkerk, or West church, which possesses a beautifully carved Renaissance screen and pulpit of the middle of the 16th century, and a quaint wooden bell-house built for use before the completion of the bell-tower. A quaint figure in the pantheon of the heroic age is Hanuman, the deified chief of monkeys - probably meant to represent the aboriginal tribes of southern India - whose wonderful exploits as Rama's ally on the expedition to Lanka Indian audiences will never weary of hearing recounted.
As the elements his deities entered into combinations, there appeared quaint results - heads without necks, arms without shoulders. Considerable sections of the ancient walls and moat still remain, though the demolition of portions to meet the exigencies of modern traffic and expansion has somewhat destroyed its quaint medieval character. The style is quaint , original, abounding in allusions and witticisms, and rich, with piled-up analogies and metaphors.
She also was an authoress, publishing in a volume of Haus-, Wald-, and Feld-Mdrehen, full of quaint poetical conceits, and in Anna, a novel, in two vols. The town is surrounded by promenades occupying the site of the old fortifications; it contains in addition to the medieval market square, many old-fashioned houses and quaint narrow streets.
The streets are narrow, and the houses are mostly picturesque old structures, built of wood, with many quaint gables and dark archways. It consists of a quaint and irregularly built old town, a new quarter, and two extensive suburbs, Altenburg and Neumarkt. Berlin is essentially a modern city, the quaint two-storied houses, which formerly characterized it, having given place to palatial business blocks, which somewhat dwarf the streets and squares, which once had an air of stately spaciousness.
The habit of burlesquing the romans d'aventures was no new one, and the form lent itself easily to the two literary exercises to which he was most disposed - apt and quaint citation from and variation on the classics and satirical criticism of the life he saw around him. Bayeux possesses many quaint , timbered houses and stone mansions in its quiet streets. Here are the rock of the siren Lurlei or Lorelei; the old castles of Stahleck and Pfalz, which belonged to the Counts Palatine of the Rhine; and the quaint medieval towns of Caub and St Goarshausen.
In the midst of the peasants themselves there lived a consciousness of their special claims as to tenant right, claims which sometimes assumed the shape of the quaint saying, "The land is ours, though we are yours. This quaint old wooden house, in the midst of a large garden full of splendid elms, continued to be his chief residence till the day of his death. At the entrance to the harbour is San Fernando, an old fort , and the city is very quaint in appearance.
Soon the irresistible charm of a book which gratified the imagination of the reader with all the action and scenery of a fairy tale, which exercised his ingenuity by setting him to discover a multitude of curious analogies, which interested his feelings for human beings, frail like himself, and struggling with temptations from within and from without, which every moment drew a smile from him by some stroke of quaint yet simple pleasantry, and nevertheless left on his mind a sentiment of reverence for God and of sympathy for man, began to produce its effect.
His quaint humour alternating with genuine pathos, and above all his simple and singularly unaffected devotional nature, made him as a preacher without a peer in his own time and country. Several of the quaint bits of ancient Leith yet remain, and the appearance of the shore as it was in the 17th and 18th centuries, and even at a later date, was picturesque in the extreme.
He was then about fifteen, and his taste for writing, bred thus far upon the quaint Journals of Friends, the Bible and The Pilgrim's Progress, was at once stimulated. The severity of the treatise is relieved by characteristic touches of humour, and by quaint anecdotes and allusions furnished from his wide reading and perfect memory. His first budget was a quaint failure, and was thrown out by a coalition of Liberals and Peelites which he believed was formed against Mr Disraeli more than against the chancellor of the exchequer.
The story of Njavvisena, daughter of the Sun, is full of quaint folk-lore about the taming of the reindeer. Later is the Fostbreedrasaga , a very interesting story, told in a quaint romantic style, of Thorgeir, the reckless henchman of King Olaf, and how his death was revenged in Greenland by his sworn brother the true-hearted Thormod Coalbrow's poet, who afterward dies at Sticklestad. Have the driver take you to a romantic, quaint restaurant. It sits among joining street shops in a quaint commercial area.
The interior of the old town consists chiefly of narrow and irregular streets, with many quaint and picturesque houses. The inner line of fortifications was razed in , and the defensive works now consist only of the citadel and three detached forts, one of which, Fort Blucher, serves as a tete-de-pout on the left bank of the Rhine, Wesel contains some quaint old houses, and a town hall, dating from , with an elaborate facade, and containing a valuable collection of old silver plate.
The houses are almost all of one storey, built in the quaint style of southern Spain, with red-tile roofs, and the better ones with verandas and court gardens. As early as some of them - sprung of Alan, lord of Buckenhall - settled in the neighbourhood of Calne and Devizes, whence descended the immediate ancestors of "worthy Mr Tobie Alleine of Devizes," father of Joseph, who, the fourth of a large family, was born at Devizes early in The town is well and regularly built, with broad and straight streets, and contains numerous handsome and quaint buildings in the northern Gothic style.
Most of the streets in the heart of the city are narrow and irregular, and the quaint aspect of a free medieval town has to a considerable extent been maintained. As their reputation grew he travelled all over the country, delighting large audiences with his quaint humour and natural pathos.
The cottage looked so quaint with its low white walls and thatched roof. He wrote in a quaint and elaborate style on scientific, scriptural and moral subjects and engaged in much controversy in defence of the Franciscan rule and practice.
St Agnes is the patron saint of young girls, who, in rural districts, formerly indulged in all sorts of quaint country magic on St Agnes' Eve 20thst January with a view to discovering their future husbands. The latter building is first mentioned in , but most of the present building dates from far later times, though the quaint paved spiral pathway taking the place of a staircase in the interior was made in the middle of the 16th century.
The old town-hall is a quaint Slavonic adaptation of Romanesque forms. The style is quaint , original, abounding in allusions and witticisms, and rich, even to gorgeousness, with piled-up analogies and metaphors. These quaint wedding chapels are usually decorated and ready to go for an off-the-cuff informal wedding. Its combination of unspoiled wilderness, glimmering glaciers, towering mountains, and quaint waterfront communities, make it a dream vacation destination for cruisers of all ages.
Alaska's famed Inside Passage is a stunning narrow waterway nestled between towering mountains, quaint waterfront communities, and the Pacific Ocean.
When Helen buys jewelry, she prefers to purchase quaint pieces that come with their own historical stories. Most Searched Words with Video.
Heresy: In a Sentence. Gambit: In a Sentence. Pneumonia: In a Sentence. Vainglorious: In a Sentence. Otiose: In a Sentence. Mea Culpa: In a Sentence. Numinous: In a Sentence. Multiplicity: In a Sentence. Historical linguistics is an engaging, hands-on introduction to the field, from the quaint epigraphs beginning each chapter to the well-planned exercises concluding them.
In this there was a curious tension between asking historical questions about a seemingly quaint little theatrical superstition, while nonetheless still observing it. Islanders are becoming increasingly accustomed to requests for samples of their " quaint " object dialect.
Overall, the place was clean, quaint and well-done. His poetry is a constant exploration of things which are almost quaint. If such strictures seem quaint in today's world, it may be because we are psychologically uncomfortable with this kind of vocabulary. We find it odd, even offensive, if a boat looks like a teapot and at best quaint when a teapot looks like a boat. They have kept a faith in rationality as a positive and constructive force that postmodernist thinkers, not altogether to their credit, will find quaint.
Westerners should not regard that failure to challenge as merely an illustration of a quaint eastern culture in action, as my second example shows. The smells and flies bothered the colonial administrators and the eyesore of the dump disturbed the picturesque view of the quaint walled city. These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web.
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