quaintness
- noun
- /ˈkwāntnəs/
- After visiting Denison University in Ohio, she was captivated by the small-town quaintness of Granville.
- town quaintness
Examples
-
Of course, these villages pride themselves on quaintness, a quality achieved with flower boxes and cleanliness, so it's their way of requesting no littering, but Sarah and Mattie can't resist.
Fiction book (2002) -
Drive the gently undulating backroads, and the succeeding hamlets compete for quaintness.
-
Is it the quaintness of that dinner table on a lovely Florence street?
Blog text (31) -
Photographic Society of America members planning a trip to New England know that rocky coasts, historic lighthouses, and New England "quaintness" abound, but so do activities that reflect the wonderful cultural diversity of the area.
Academic text (2006) -
We were far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife and spared the reinvented Main Street, the historical markers on every house, the hideous quaintness of the polished past.
Fiction book (2002) -
The village is lined with tasting rooms of varying degrees of quaintness.
Synonyms
An unusual but pleasant way of behaving
A friendly, informal way of speaking or acting like people in small towns
A simple, plain way that country life looks and feels
A pleasant old-fashioned feeling that makes a place seem like the past
A warm, simple style that reminds people of old local traditions
A way a place or scene looks when it is very attractive like a picture
A style that looks like it is from earlier times
Being not modern and like things from the past
Being old or having a style from the past
Antonyms
How Charming
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Quaintness comes from an old French word coint that meant 'clever' and from Latin cognitus 'known', which is related to the English word know. Over time the idea changed from 'clever' to something pleasingly old or unusual, so quaintness now means a charming, old-fashioned or attractively unusual quality.