Word of the Day: idiosyncrasy

idiosyncrasy (id-ee-uh-sing-kruh-see) - noun

An idiosyncrasy is "a characteristic, habit, mannerism, or the like, that is peculiar to an individual."

First used in the written form around 1595–1605. Greek idios meant "of a particular person, personal, private, own." Among the words it has contributed to English are idio (etymologically meaning "one's own particular way of speaking"), idiot, and idiosyncrasy. This was a compound formed in Greek with sugkrāsis, itself a compound noun made up of sun (meaning "together") and krasis (meaning "mixture"). Sugkrāsis originally meant literally "mixture," but it was later used metaphorically for "mixture of personal characteristics, temperament," and so idiosugkrāsis was "one's own particular mix of traits."