What does eccentrical mean?
Eccentrical is a rare adjective meaning deviating from what is customary, conventional, or centered. It functions as an old variant of the standard English word eccentric, which itself came into the language from medieval Latin eccentricus, ultimately built on Greek roots meaning 'out of center.' In its everyday sense, an eccentrical person or habit is unconventional or peculiar in a way that often charms rather than alarms — the absent-minded professor's mismatched socks, the inventor's clockwork greenhouse. The word also once had a technical sense, describing something whose axis or measure relates to a point other than its true center, as in off-center wheels or orbits. Today, eccentrical has largely fallen out of use: dictionaries record it mainly as a historical variant, and modern writers overwhelmingly choose eccentric instead. Knowing eccentrical is useful chiefly for reading older literature and for appreciating how English once tolerated more competition among adjective forms before settling on the shorter, punchier survivor.
Departing from customary or conventional practice; odd, peculiar, or unconventional — a rare variant of eccentric.
"His eccentrical dress and solitary walks earned him the nickname 'the hermit of Highgate.'"
Considered archaic; eccentric is the standard modern choice.
(Obsolete) Having its axis, center, or path offset from another center; not concentric.
"The treatise described an eccentrical orbit in which the planet circled a point displaced from the sun."
This geometric and mechanical sense survives only in historical scientific writing.
Eccentrical is the quirky word for 'quirky' — a centuries-old variant of eccentric that survives today mostly as a linguistic curiosity.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of eccentrical
Eccentrical derives from medieval Latin eccentricus, formed from Greek ekkentros, meaning 'out of center' (ek 'out of' plus kentron 'center'). The word entered English in the sixteenth century, initially in astronomical contexts describing circles or orbits not sharing the same center, before extending to describe unconventional people and behavior. Eccentrical arose as a longer adjectival variant of eccentric, but eccentric proved the more durable form, leaving eccentrical largely confined to earlier texts.
Related word forms
How eccentrical is actually used
Eccentrical is rare in contemporary English; writers should almost always prefer the standard form eccentric, which covers both the figurative sense ('unconventional person or behavior') and the technical senses in mechanics and geometry. Eccentrical appears chiefly in older texts and is best treated as archaic. Like eccentric, it carries a mild, often affectionate connotation of harmless oddity rather than severe abnormality.
Easily confused with eccentrical
Eccentric is the standard modern adjective meaning unconventional or off-center, while eccentrical is merely a rare older variant of the same word.
Egocentric describes someone self-centered and self-absorbed, whereas eccentrical describes deviation from convention rather than focus on oneself.