penchant
UK /ˈpɒnʃɒn/ · US /ˈpɛnt͡ʃənt/ noun
Forms penchants
- noun A taste, liking, or inclination for (something). “He has a penchant for fine wine.”
- noun (card games, uncountable) A card game resembling bezique.
- noun (card games) In the game of penchant, any queen and jack of different suits held at the same time.
Synonyms
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French penchant, present participle of pencher (“to tilt, to lean”), from Middle French, from Old French pengier (“to tilt, be out of line”), from Vulgar Latin *pendicāre, a derivative of Latin pendere (“to hang”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Inclination; decided taste; bias; as, a penchant for art.
Etymology [F., fr. pencher to bend, fr. (assumed) LL. pendicare, L. pendere. See Pendant.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “penchant”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details