Has something memorable happened in your life? Surely. Some events remain in memory because they are scary or unexpected, and they have a tragic element, others because they are funny. The latter will be discussed, because the question on the agenda is: “What is a curiosity?”.
Origin
Words with French roots always immediately differ from those that have a different pedigree. Therefore, if we assume that the word "curiosity" of French origin in this will not be anything wrong. But for more accurate information, refer to the etymological dictionary.
The source is called French. He borrowed a word from Latin and, apparently, satiated with its content. In French, there is the word curieux (curious), and in Latin - curiosus (caring, thorough). At first, only the adjective "curious" was known. It has long been used in Russia, since the time of Peter the Great. As for the noun, it is known only from the third quarter of the XIX century.
Meaning and Examples
Pretty easy to pick up examples. After all, many comedies are built on the principle of non-coincidence of the representations of some people with others or actions committed at the wrong time. There is a genre of “sitcom”, in the field of which a huge number of screenwriters work. And the question, what is a curiosity, you can answer: "This is their job."
If we talk about classical literature, then the prose of O. Henry all consists of this kind of incident. First, he gives the disposition of the plot, and then the events make a sharp turn, and the reader can only enjoy the writer's skill.
Now that you understand what a curiosity is, you can move on to the meaning of the word:
- A strange, outlandish or funny case.
- Curious incident.
- Something strange, ridiculous
Human memory works in such a way that people easily remember what is being knocked out of the general row. Think, what exactly impressed you lately, except for that information which for some reason is necessary for you? If you delve inside your consciousness, it turns out that only they leave a trace - funny cases. Of course, not only. To be remembered, an event must contain an emotional element, and for this to be surprising, strange, unusual. The terrible incidents are also well remembered, but let's not talk about that.
Synonyms
Of course, there are limited methods and mechanisms that reveal the essence of memory. Long explanations hate someone, they are better remembered by analogy. To give this opportunity, we make a list of synonyms for the meaning of the word in question:
- happening;
- history;
- event;
- incident
- a gimmick.
And these are almost all synonyms. Surprisingly, all replacements do not reveal the special nature of the curiosity. In other words, for nouns to come closer in their meaning to the object of study, you need to add the appropriate adjectives to them:
The only noun from the list that needs no explanation is “curiosity”. This is the answer to the question, what is a curiosity.