idiosyncratic

English

Etymology

From idiosyncrasy +‎ -ic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪd.i.əʊ.sɪŋˈkɹæ.tɪk/, /-ˌsɪŋ-/
• Rhymes: -ætɪk

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

idiosyncratic (comparative more idiosyncratic, superlative most idiosyncratic)

1. Peculiar to a specific individual; eccentric.
   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 9, in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:

     At the time, I set it down to some idiosyncratic, personal distaste . . . but I have since had reason to believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature of man.

   • 1891, George MacDonald, chapter 12, in The Flight of the Shadow:

     It was no merely idiosyncratic experience, for the youth had the same: it was love!

   • 1982 April 26, Michael Walsh, “Music: A Fresh Falstaff in Los Angeles”, in Time:

     British Director Ronald Eyre kept the action crisp; he was correctly content to execute the composer's wishes, rather than impose a fashionably idiosyncratic view of his own.

   • 2020 September 1, Nicholas Barber, “Five stars for I'm Thinking of Ending Things”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     I’m not saying that Kaufman’s film will be enshrined as a classic, as those Kubrick films are. It’s too idiosyncratic and demanding for that: many viewers will be thinking of ending it halfway through

Derived terms

• idiosyncratic reaction
• idiosyncratical
• idiosyncraticity

Related terms

• idiosyncrasy

Translations

peculiar to a specific individual

• Armenian: իդիոսինկրատիկ (idiosinkratik)
• Catalan: idiosincràtic
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 獨特的／独特的 (dútè de), 特異的／特异的 (tèyì de)

• Czech: osobitý (cs) m, specifický (cs) m, výstřední (cs), charakteristický (cs) m
• Dutch: eigenzinnig (nl), eigenaardig (nl), idiosyncratisch (nl), karakteristiek (nl)
• Estonian: idiosünkraatiline, isikuomane
• Finnish: omaperäinen (fi), omalaatuinen (fi)
• French: singulier (fr) m, particulier (fr) m, idiosyncratique (fr)
• German: eigenartig (de), eigentümlich (de), spezifisch (de), idiosynkratisch (de)
• Hungarian: sajátos (hu)
• Italian: idiosincrasico, idiosincratico
• Kazakh: ерекше (erekşe)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: idiosynkratisk

• Polish: specyficzny (pl) m
• Portuguese: idiossincrásico (pt), idiossincrático (pt)
• Romanian: idiosincratic, idiosincrazic
• Russian: персона́льный (ru) (personálʹnyj), своеобразный (ru) (svojeobraznyj), уникальный (ru) (unikalʹnyj), характерный (ru) (xarakternyj), отличительный (ru) (otličitelʹnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: sònraichte
• Serbo-Croatian: idiosinkratičan, specifičan (sh), karakterističan (sh)
• Spanish: idiosincrásico, idiosincrático
• Swedish: idiosynkratisk (sv), säregen (sv), egenartad (sv)

Further reading

• “idiosyncratic”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.