heteroclite

comparative more heteroclite · superlative most heteroclite

1. grammarIrregularly declined or inflected.
2. datedDeviating from the ordinary rule; eccentric, abnormal.

   Nor could I have dreamed the heteroclite crew-men I had met aboard Tzadkiel's ship […]

   1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter XLVIII, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 281

   1 more example

   he was, on the contrary, as mercurial and sublimated a composition, […] as heteroclite a creature in all his declensions; […] with as much life and whim, and gaité de cœur about him, as the kindliest climate could have engendered and put together.

   1759, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin, published 2003, page 24

plural heteroclites

1. grammarAn irregularly declined or inflected word.
2. human sciencesA word whose etymological roots come from distinct, different languages or language groups.
3. A person who is unconventional; a maverick.

   Synonyms: free spirit