This week’s theme
Words that sound dirty, but aren’t

This week’s words
crotchet


Previous week’s theme
Misleading words

Wordsmith Games

🧩	Jigsaw Riddle The Three Marys
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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(KRAH-chit)

MEANING:

noun:
1. An eccentric opinion, preference, or habit.
2. In music, a quarter note.
3. A small hook or hooklike device or structure.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Anglo-French crochet (small hook), diminutive of croc (hook), from Old Norse krókr (hook). Earliest documented use: c. 1427.

NOTES:

Despite appearances, crotchet is not an instruction. It began as a small hook and is an etymological twin of crochet. Even crotch belongs to the same hook-and-fork family. Crotchety originally described someone given to crotchets, or eccentric notions.

USAGE:

“All book collectors develop distinctive crotchets.”
Michael Dirda; How to Shop in Used Bookstores; The Washington Post; Apr 7, 2024.

“Sixteen swallows do the crotchet and quaver thing on telephone wires, while three others zip through a hopeful sky.”
Paul Evans; An Island of Wild Life Among the Empty Pastures; The Guardian (London, UK); Sep 28, 2023.

See more usage examples of crotchet in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: