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Origin and history of curiosity
curiosity(n.)
late 14c., "careful attention to detail" (a sense now obsolete); also "skilled workmanship;" also "desire to know or learn, inquisitiveness" (in Middle English usually in bad senses: "prying; idle or vain interest in worldly affairs; sophistry; fastidiousness"); from Old French curiosete "curiosity, avidity, choosiness" (Modern French curiosité), from Latin curiositatem (nominative curiositas) "desire of knowledge, inquisitiveness," from curiosus "careful, diligent; inquiring eagerly, meddlesome," akin to cura "care" (see cure (n.)).
Neutral or good sense "desire to see or learn what is strange or unknown" is from early 17c. Meaning "an object of interest, something rare or strange" is from 1640s. Curiosity-shop is from 1818.
Entries linking to curiosity
c. 1300, "care, heed," from Latin cura "care, concern, trouble," with many figurative extensions over time such as "study; administration; office of a parish priest; a mistress," and also "means of healing, successful remedial treatment of a disease" (late 14c.), from Old Latin coira-, a noun of unknown origin. Meaning "medical care" is late 14c.
1851, "piece of bric-a-brac from the Far East," a shortening of curiosity (n.) in the "object of interest" sense (1640s). Extended by 1890s to rare or interesting bric-a-brac from anywhere.
Curioso (1650s) was a 17c.-18c. word for "one who is curious" (about science, art, etc.) also "one who admires or collects curiosities," from Italian curioso "curious person."
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