Middle English Dictionary Entry

queint(e adj.
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Entry Info

Forms queint(e adj. Also quaint(e, quoint(e, quant(e, quent(e, quint(e, coint(e, koint(e, koweinte, kint & wheinte, whaint(e, waint, wente & (early) cwointe, cuint(e, cwuinte & (error) queyte.
Etymology OF cointe, cuinte, quointe, queinte, quuinte.

Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)

1.
(a) Wise, clever, prudent; ~ of gin, ingenious; (b) skillful, able; (c) crafty, wily; cunning, sly, deceitful; (d) well-known, famous; notorious [quot.: c1400]; (e) gracious, courteous; (f) well-dressed, fashionable, elegant; (g) proud, vain; refl. maken ~ of, to pride oneself on (sth.).
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2.
Of things, actions, plans, schemes, speech, etc.: (a) clever, ingenious; queinter questioun, a more difficult question; (b) cunning, crafty, deceptive; of a carbuncle: ?unpredictable, deceptive, ?gangrenous; ~ contenaunce, sly bearing; ~ wordes, deceptive language; (c) ingeniously made, skillfully wrought; elaborate, intricate; ~ wordes, wordes ~, polished language; (d) pretty, fancy; elegant, fine [sometimes difficult to distinguish from 2.(c)]; ~ pas, with elegant steps, gracefully; (e) maken hit ~ (and tough, maken tough and ~, etc., to speak or write elaborately, often deceptively, not plainly or directly; quibble; also, behave graciously or charmingly; dissemble; make i neuer so ~, make thou hit neuer so ~ and gai, no matter how ingenious I am (you are); (f) ~ ispoken, smooth-tongued; ~ tempred, ?skillfully mixed or regulated; ?clever; ~ wise, ?cleverly.
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3.
(a) Strange, unusual; remarkable, marvelous; peculiar, special; ~ geres, peculiar ways; termes ~, technical terms; (b) mysterious, mystical; also, unpredictable; (c) supernatural; magical.
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4.
As surname.
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Supplemental Materials (draft)

Note: Both the placement and the interpretation of the quots. taken under sense 2.(f) are open to question. Given the meaning of Gk. sophronikos, ~ tempred is likely to mean simply 'prudent, wise, moderate' (i.e., to belong under the primary sense of the word, sense 1.(a), which is indeed essentially how it was glossed in MED s.v. tempren v., sense 4.(c) 'observing moderation'.) The Medulla gloss taken as a phrase ~ wise likely represents two alternative glosses to the same Gk. word, rather than a phrase, i.e. 'Sophos: queynt, wyse'. Moreover, the two genuine combinations, ~ ispoken and ~ tempred would seem to be better parsed as incorporating queinte adv. rather than queinte adj.

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