Join free

Antique

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

antique¹

  • /ˌanˈtiːk/ UK, contemporary
  • /ˌænˈtik/ Canada, US
  • /ˌænˈtiːk/
  • /ˌɛnˈtiːk/ New Zealand
  • /ˌanˈtik/ Scotland

Rhymes with -iːk

Where it comes from

Borrowed from French antique (“ancient, old”), from Latin antiquus (“former, earlier, ancient, old”), from ante (“before”); see ante-. Doublet of antic.

adjective antiquer · antiquest · antic · antick · anticke · antiq.

  1. Having existed in ancient times, descended from antiquity; used especially in reference to Greece and Rome. […] Phillip the younger issue of the king, / Coting the other hill in such arraie, / That all his guilded vpright pikes do seeme, / Streight trees of gold, the pendant leaues, / And their deuice of Antique heraldry, / Quartred in collours seeming sundy fruits, / Makes it the Orchard of the Hesperide
  2. Belonging to former times, not modern, out of date, old-fashioned. Some traditions of this antiquer system may have passed into Van Eyck's method, from distemper into oil, and thence downwards, gradually more vague, into the modern process, till they at length disappeared altogether about Rubens's time.
  3. Designating a style of type.
  4. Embossed without gilt.
  5. Synonym of old (“of color: subdued, as if faded over time”).
  6. obsolete Synonym of antic, specifically
  7. obsolete Fantastic, odd, wild, antic.

Similar: disused, outdated

noun antiques · antic · antick · anticke · antiq.

  1. An old object perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance.
  2. An object of ancient times.
  3. singular The style or manner of ancient times, used especially of Greek and Roman art.
  4. derogatory, figuratively, mildly An old person.
  5. obsolete A man of ancient times. They supposed that they had seene those most beutyfull Dryades, or the natyue nymphes or fayres of the fountaynes whereof the antiques spake so muche.
  6. A style of type of thick and bold face in which all lines are of equal or nearly equal thickness.
  7. obsolete Grotesque entertainment; an antic. […] I do implore secretie, that the King would haue me present the Princesse (sweete chuck) with some delightfull ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antique, or fierworke : […]
  8. obsolete A performer in an antic; or in general, a burlesque performer, a buffoon.

Similar: geriatric, oldster

verb antiques · antiquing · antiqued · antic · antick

  1. intransitive To search or shop for antiques. Once our daughter-in-love, Janis, went antiquing with us because she and our firstborn, Matthew, were in the market for some bedroom furniture.
  2. transitive To make (an object) appear to be an antique in some way.
  3. transitive To emboss without gilding.

Antique²

  • /ʔɐnˈti.kɛ/ Philippines

Where it comes from

From Spanish Antique, from Hiligaynon hantik.

proper noun

  1. A province of Western Visayas, Visayas, Philippines. Capital: San Jose de Buenavista.

Talk about this word