24 January 2015

quirk

[kwurk]

noun
1. a peculiarity of action, behavior, or personality; mannerism:
He is full of strange quirks.
2. a shift, subterfuge, or evasion; quibble.
3. a sudden twist or turn:
He lost his money by a quirk of fate.
4. a flourish or showy stroke, as in writing.
5. Architecture.
an acute angle or channel, as one dividing two parts of a molding or one dividing a flush bead from the adjoining surfaces.
an area taken from a larger area, as a room or a plot of ground.
an enclosure for this area.
6. Obsolete. a clever or witty remark; quip.

adjective
7. formed with a quirk or channel, as a molding.

Origin
1540-1550; origin uncertain

Can be confused
quark, quirk.

Synonyms
1. See eccentricity.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for quirk
– Still, the quirk is more the rule than the exception for tennis players under pressure.
– If these urges were confined purely to the founding generation, this would be a historical quirk.
– The early arrival-albeit only by a minute-is due to a complex quirk of the leap-year calendar.

Today’s aphorism

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.

– Winston Churchill

On this day

24 January 41AD – death of Caligula, also known as Gaius Caesar, 3rd Roman Emperor from 37 – 41AD. Died 24 January 41AD. First Roman Emperor to be assassinated following a conspiracy to restore the Roman Republic. While the plot to kill Caligula succeeds, the restoration of the Republic fails when the Praetorian Guard appoint Caligula’s uncle, Claudius, as Emperor.

24 January 1965 – death of U.K. Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill. Born 30 November 1874.

24 January 1974 – Cyclone Wanda makes land-fall at Maryborough, bringing the worst flooding to Queensland in decades, including the infamous Brisbane floods.