Today's Word "Crotchet"
Published in Vocabulary
crotchet \KRAH-chet\ (noun) - A highly individual and eccentric opinion or preference. Originally, a small hook or hooked instrument although that sense is now archaic.
"Guacamole on ice cream is just one of Jason's many gastronomic crotchets."
This word is merely the English pronunciation of French crochet "hook," diminutive of croche "crook, hook" with spelling changed to match. (The French pronunciation gives us [kro-'shey], spelled "crochet" in English, referring to the variant of knitting.) The French may have borrowed the stem from the Germanic ancestor of English "crook," Swedish "krok" and Danish "krog." We often (mis)use the adjective, "crotchety," but what about the noun it derives from? Crotchety does not mean "irritable," it means having many eccentric opinions. If we used the noun more often, we would have a better sense of that.
Comments