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Webster 1913 Edition
Heteroclite
Het′er-o-clite
,Adj.
[L.
heteroclitus
, Gr. [GREEK]; [GREEK] other + [GREEK] to lean, incline, inflect: cf. F. hétéroclite
.] Deviating from ordinary forms or rules; irregular; anomalous; abnormal.
Het′er-o-clite
,Noun.
1.
(Gram.)
A word which is irregular or anomalous either in declension or conjugation, or which deviates from ordinary forms of inflection in words of a like kind; especially, a noun which is irregular in declension.
Webster 1828 Edition
Heteroclite
HET'EROCLITE
,Noun.
1.
In grammar, a word which is irregular or anomalous either in declension or conjugation, or which deviates from the ordinary forms of inflection in words of a like kind. It is particularly applied to nouns irregular in declension.2.
Any thing or person deviating from common forms.HET'EROCLITE
Definition 2024
heteroclite
heteroclite
See also: hétéroclite
English
Adjective
heteroclite (comparative more heteroclite, superlative most heteroclite)
- Deviating from the ordinary rule; eccentric, abnormal.
- 1759, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin, published 2003, page 24:
- he was, on the contrary, as mercurial and sublimated a composition,----as heteroclite a creature in all his declensions; -----with as much life and whim, and gaité de cœur about him, as the kindliest climate could have engendered and put together.
- 1997, Gene Wolfe, The Urth of the New Sun:
- Nor could I have dreamed the heteroclite crew-men I had met aboard Tzadkiel's ship ...
-
- (grammar) Being irregularly declined or inflected.
Related terms
See also
Noun
heteroclite (plural heteroclites)
- A person who is unconventional; a maverick
- (grammar) An irregularly declined or inflected word
- (linguistics) A word whose etymological roots come from distinct, different languages or language groups.
Related terms
Translations
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