quirk
The origin and history of quirk.
Etymology
First recorded in the 1540s, its origin is uncertain. It may come from Middle English *querk, which traces to Old Norse kverk, meaning “a bend or angle, especially below a cross-beam or below the chin, the bight of an axe”, also “throat, gullet”, itself from Proto-Germanic *kwerkō (“throat, gullet”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour; maw”). It is cognate with Scots querk (“throat”, also “any hollow in the body, such as an armpit, groin, instep, etc.”) and Icelandic kverk (“interior angle”). The word is also partly from dialectal quirk, querk (“a whim, fancy, fuss, huff, complaint”, also “to peevishly grumble, grunt, sigh, croak, die”), from Middle English querken, *quirken (“to choke”), from Old Norse kvirkja (“to choke, strangle”), from the same origin as above. It is related to dialectal querken, quirken (“to choke”), and is likely not related to queer.
