quirk

Etymology 1

First attested in the 1540s. Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Middle English *querk, from Old Norse kverk (“a bend or angle, especially below a cross-beam or below the chin, the bight of an axe", also "throat, gullet”), from Proto-Germanic *kwerkō (“throat, gullet”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour; maw”). Cognate with Scots querk (“throat", also "any hollow in the body, such as an armpit, groin, instep, etc.”), Icelandic kverk (“interior angle”). Also partially from dialectal quirk, querk (“a whim, fancy, fuss, huff, complaint", also "to peevishly grumble, grunt, sigh, croak, die”), from Middle English querken, *quirken (“to choke”), from Old Norse kvirkja (“to choke, strangle”), from the same origin above. Related to dialectal querken, quirken (“to choke”). Likely not related to queer.

noun

1. An idiosyncrasy; a slight glitch, mannerism; something unusual about the manner or style of something or someone.
   The car steers cleanly, but the gearshift has a few quirks.
2. (architecture) An acute angle dividing a molding; a groove that runs lengthwise between the upper part of a moulding and a soffit.
3. (archaic) A quibble, evasion, or subterfuge.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To (cause to) move with a wry jerk.
   He quirked an eyebrow.
   The corners of her mouth quirked.
   He quirked his lips playfully. 2017, Jane Gloriana Villanueva, Snow Falling, page 203
2. (transitive, architecture) To furnish with a quirk or channel.
3. (intransitive, archaic) To use verbal tricks or quibbles.
   I have stung her and wrung her, The venom is working;— And if you had hung her With canting and quirking, She could not be deader than she will be soon 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts

Etymology 2

verb

1. Alternative form of querk