English
Etymology
From mediaeval Latin
ethroclitus and late Latin
heteroclitus, from
Greek
ἑτερόκλιτος, from
ἑτερο- +
κλίνειν ‘lean, incline’.
Pronunciation
/ˈhɛtərəʊklaɪt/
Adjective
- Deviating from the ordinary rule; eccentric, abnormal.
-
- 1759: 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. —
Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
Gentleman (Penguin 2003, p. 24)
- : Being irregularly declined or inflected.
Noun
- A person who is unconventional; a maverick
- An irregularly
declined or inflected word