Other forms: eccentrics, eccentrically, eccentricity
An eccentric person is odd in a way people rather enjoy. The neighbour who keeps bees on the roof and has named all of them is eccentric; he is not mad, he is simply running on his own rules.
The word is usually affectionate, which is what separates it from strange or weird. It attaches easily to money and to age — a rich eccentric, an eccentric old aunt — because both buy you the freedom not to explain yourself. As a noun, an eccentric is that person. In machines it keeps its literal sense: an eccentric wheel is one turning off centre.
1adjectiveeccentricOdd in a harmless, likeable way; living by your own rules.~75%
“Her eccentric uncle answers the door in full evening dress.”
synonyms: quirky, unconventional
2nounnounA person like that.~8%
“The village had one shop and three eccentrics.”
3adjectivecentredNot centred; turning off the middle.~17%
“An eccentric wheel makes the whole machine shake.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 154 sentences found in the wild and placed 153 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: quirky
ec-CENTR-ic → off CENTRE
A wheel with its hole punched off centre. It still turns, but the whole cart jumps down the road and everyone looks up.
hooks ontocentre
Greek ek, out, and kentron, the centre point — literally off centre. It began as a word for wheels and orbits that did not turn around the middle, and moved to people who do not either.
Ancient Greek
ἔκκεντρος
Medieval Latin
eccentricus
Middle French
excentrique
English, today
eccentric
Built from
Borrowed from Middle French excentrique, from Medieval Latin eccentricus, from Ancient Greek ἔκκεντρος. From Middle French excentrique, from Medieval Latin eccentricus, from Ancient Greek ἔκκεντρος (“not having the earth as the center of an orbit”), from ἐκ (“out”) + κέντρον (“point”). Equivalent to ex- + -centric.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA