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Those whose quirk is to zig while others zag (and conversely those who zag while others zig) will appreciate the origins of today’s word. Not its etymological origins, mind you—no one knows whence quirk came—but the twists and turns of its meanings across the centuries. The oldest known use of quirk dates to the mid-1500s, and referred to a clever verbal dodge of the kind one might use to turn the tables on someone in an argument or debate. It didn’t take long for quirk’s meaning to expand to cover all kinds of twisty, turn-y things, from witty retorts and curlicue flourishes made with ink on paper to the vagaries or twists of fate. The sense of quirk meaning “a peculiarity of action or behavior” refers to a twist of sorts as well, insofar as our quirks often flip others’ expectations of us, perhaps even causing them to quirk their eyebrows now and again. In a surprising twist, quirk began to be used as a verb meaning “to curve or twist” in the late 1800s.
Examples of quirk in a Sentence
Jess Fleming, Twin Cities, 18 July 2025
Newer quirks have vexed Jeffrey Meli, now a clinical professor of finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business, who left the banking group Barclays after twenty years to study how reforms have distributed risk across the financial system.
—Mary Childs, Harpers Magazine, 16 July 2025
Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2025
Are these personality quirks the essence of their brilliance or pathological eccentricities which sabotage greatness and should not be excused?
—Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 27 Apr. 2023
See All Example Sentences for quirk
Cite this Entry
“Quirk.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quirk. Accessed 26 Jul. 2025.
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