Antique

How to spell antique

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce antique

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does antique mean?

1. nounA collectible object made in an earlier era and valued for its age or craftsmanship.
2. adjectiveMade in or characteristic of an earlier period; old and valued for its age.

Antique in a sentence

• noun

  The dealer valued the carved chair as a genuine antique.

• adjective

  They restored the antique desk that had belonged to her grandmother.

• noun

  She sells every antique in her shop at a fair price.

• adjective

  The museum displayed an antique map of the harbour.

Where does antique come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin antiquus, meaning 'ancient' or 'belonging to former times', which itself grew out of ante, the Latin word for 'before'. The sense was simply 'that which existed in earlier days', and Roman writers used it for old customs, old buildings, and venerable age in general. English borrowed it in the 1500s through the French antique, and the French spelling is the reason the word ends in the unexpected -que rather than a plain -k. For a time 'antic' and 'antique' were the same word, which is why grotesque old carvings came to be called antics; only later did the playful sense split off and leave 'antique' to mean something genuinely old and valued. The modern noun sense, a collectible object from an earlier era, did not settle into common use until the 1700s and 1800s as the trade in such pieces grew. The trap for writers is that final French -que, since the ear hears a simple 'k' sound.

How the word is built

• anti- (from Latin antiquus: ancient, former)
• -que (French adjectival ending preserving the Latin -quus)