curio

See also: Curio and cúrio

English

Etymology

Clipping of curiosity, 1851. Compare cabinet of curiosities and French objet de curiosité.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkjʊə̯ɹiˌəʊ̯/, /ˈkjɜːɹiˌəʊ̯/, /ˈkjɔːɹiˌəʊ̯/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkjʊrioʊ/, /ˈkjə̯ɹiˌoʊ̯/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cu‧ri‧o

Noun

curio (plural curios)

1. A strange and interesting object; something that evokes curiosity.

   Synonyms: knickknack, trinket, collectible, oddity, antiquity

   • 2013, Joan Lee Faust, The New York Times Garden Book, Revised:

     Staghorn ferns, with their antlerlike leaves, are really curios of ferndom and never fail to gain attention.

   • 2012 March, David Graeber, “Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit”, in The Baffler‎^[1]:

     Video telephony is just about the only new technology from that particular movie that has appeared—and it was technically possible when the movie was showing. 2001 can be seen as a curio, but what about Star Trek?

   • 2018 September 19, Katie Rife, “Eli Roth, of all directors, brings Amblin magic to the kid-lit horror of The House With A Clock In Its Walls”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[2], archived from the original on 20 September 2018:

     upon his arrival, Lewis discovers that his uncle’s place is no threadbare bachelor pad. It’s a creaky old Victorian mansion, full of overstuffed chairs, flocked wallpaper, stained glass, creepy carnival curios, and dozens and dozens of clocks.

Related terms

• cabinet of curiosities
• curiosity
• curious

Translations

strange and interesting object

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 古玩 (zh) (gǔwán), 古董 (zh) (gǔdǒng)

• Czech: kuriozita f
• Dutch: curiosum (nl) n, curiositeit (nl) f
• Finnish: kummallinen esine, erikoisuus (fi), kummallisuus (fi), kuriositeetti (fi)
• Japanese: 骨董品 (ja) (こっとうひん, kottōhin)
• Korean: 골동품(骨董品) (ko) (goldongpum)
• Māori: onge
• Romanian: ciudățenie (ro) f, curiozitate (ro) f
• Russian: дико́вина (ru) f (dikóvina), курьёз (ru) m (kurʹjóz), ре́дкость (ru) f (rédkostʹ)
• Spanish: curiosidad (es) f, objeto curioso m

See also

• antique
• Thesaurus:trinket

Anagrams

• Cú Roí

Galician

Noun

curio m (uncountable)

1. curium

Italian

Chemical element (edit)
Cm Atomic number 96 curio
Classification data Period 7 Group 3 Block f-block Class actinide
Previous: ← americio (Am)
Next: berkelio (Bk) →

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈku.rjo/
• Rhymes: -urjo
• Hyphenation: cù‧rio

Noun

curio m (plural curi)

1. (chemistry) curium

Anagrams

• cuori, urico

Latin

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Italic *kowiriomder.

Old Latin coviriader.

Latin cūria

Proto-Indo-European *-ōder.

Proto-Indo-European *-Hōder.?

Latin -ō

Latin cūriō

From cūria (“curia”) + -ō (suffix forming masculine nouns).

Alternative forms

• cūriōnus

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkuː.ri.oː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkuː.ri.o]

Noun

cūriō m (genitive cūriōnis); third declension

1. the priest of a curia
2. a herald

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	cūriō	cūriōnēs
genitive	cūriōnis	cūriōnum
dative	cūriōnī	cūriōnibus
accusative	cūriōnem	cūriōnēs
ablative	cūriōne	cūriōnibus
vocative	cūriō	cūriōnēs

Derived terms

• cūriōnātus
• cūriōnius

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʊ.ri.oː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkuː.ri.o]

Noun

curiō

1. dative/ablative singular of curium

References

• “curio”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “curio”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• "curio", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “curio”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• curio in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[3], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “curio”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• “curio”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Portuguese

Verb

curio

1. first-person singular present indicative of curiar

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkuɾjo/ [ˈku.ɾjo]
• Rhymes: -uɾjo
• Syllabification: cu‧rio

Etymology 1

Chemical element (edit)
Cm Atomic number 96 curio
Classification data Period 7 Group 3 Block f-block Class actinide
Previous: ← americio (Am)
Next: berkelio (Bk) →

Borrowed from English curium, after Pierre and Marie Curie + -io.

Noun

curio m (uncountable)

1. curium

See also

• curio on the Spanish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^es

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English curie or French curie, named after Pierre and Marie Curie.

Alternative forms

• curie (obsolete)

Noun

curio m (plural curios)

1. curie

Further reading

• “curio”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025