Idiosyncratic vs Epitome - What's the difference?

idiosyncratic | epitome |


As an adjective idiosyncratic

is peculiar to a specific individual; eccentric.

As a noun epitome is

(label) (embodiment or encapsulation of).

idiosyncratic

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Peculiar to a specific individual; eccentric.
  • * 1886 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , ch. 9:
    • At the time, I set it down to some idiosyncratic , personal distaste . . . but I have since had reason to believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature of man.
  • * 1891 , (George MacDonald), The Flight of the Shadow , ch. 12:
    • It was no merely idiosyncratic experience, for the youth had the same: it was love!
  • * 1982 , Michael Walsh, " Music: A Fresh Falstaff in Los Angeles," Time , 26 April:
    • British Director Ronald Eyre kept the action crisp; he was correctly content to execute the composer's wishes, rather than impose a fashionably idiosyncratic view of his own.

    Related terms

    * idiosyncrasy * idiosyncratically

    External links

    *

    epitome

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia epitome) (en-noun)
  • (of a class of items) The embodiment or encapsulation of.
  • (of a class of items) A representative example.
  • (of a class of items) The height; the best.
  • (of a written document) A brief summary.

    • Usage notes

    The sense ‘the height, the best’ is considered incorrect by some; instead, `pinnacle' may be preferred.

    Synonyms

    * (an embodiment of) in a nutshell (modern idiom), synopsis * (the best) greatest * (a summary) abstract, synopsis

    Antonyms

    * antithesis

    Derived terms

    * epitomize * epitomic * epitomical

    Related terms

    * epitomator * epitomist * epitomizer

    External links

    * * ----