Eccentric

How to spell eccentric

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce eccentric

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does eccentric mean?

1. adjectiveUnconventional and slightly strange in behaviour or appearance.
2. nounA person who behaves in an unconventional or strange way.

Eccentric in a sentence

• adjective

  Their eccentric neighbour painted his entire house bright purple.

• noun

  The village regarded the reclusive author as a harmless eccentric.

• adjective

  The inventor had an eccentric habit of working through the night and sleeping all day.

• noun

  As a wealthy eccentric, she collected vintage cars she never drove.

Where does eccentric come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek ekkentros, formed from ek meaning 'out of' and kentron meaning 'centre' (originally the sharp point of a compass used to draw a circle). It first described something that was literally off-centre, especially in astronomy, where a planet's orbit was said to be eccentric if the earth did not sit at its true middle. The term passed into Latin as eccentricus and reached English in the late 1300s through that scientific and astronomical use. By the 1600s the word had drifted from describing physical orbits to describing people whose behaviour strayed from the normal centre of convention. The same kentron root sits inside 'centre' itself, which is a useful reminder that eccentric is spelled with the double c of ec- plus centr, not a single c.

How the word is built

• ec- (from Greek ek: out of)
• centr (from kentron: centre, sharp point)
• -ic (adjective suffix)