grotesquerie
1
9.9
- noun
- /ɡroʊˈtɛskəri/
:
grotesquería
- Faces painted white, black, and red in a grotesquerie of living masks.
Examples
-
'Honest' was bound to mean liar, just as 'Huggable' implied a grotesquerie of body hair.
Blog text (7) -
This is how darkness turns to light; how medieval grotesquerie becomes Renaissance divinity; and how ignorant violence becomes Enlightenment intellectualism.
Blog text (18) -
The grotesquerie is not to be taken lightly.
Academic text (1994) -
She could not imagine, nor did she try, what manner of pity and grotesquerie those letters contained.
Fiction book (1996) -
The little girls scattered among the horrors and grotesquerie looked so clean, so innocent, so ethereal.
Fiction book (1996) -
"What are you?" Myrmeen whispered, entranced by the sight of the grotesquerie in the next room.
Fiction book (1992) -
You're never going to find a moment like Arnold Schwarzenegger driving a piece of construction equipment through the side of a taxi and grinding up the guy inside, nor really any other hint of Verhoeven's grotesquerie.
Blog text (29) -
Bonis's dream, which resonates with comic irony and grotesquerie, underlines not only the fear of losing his son but also the sorrow that his lover Serafina, the opera singer, is not the real mother of his child.
Academic text (2002) -
This is why his work, with its throwaway structures, kitschy materials, jumbled references, and fan testimonials, often suggests a grotesquerie of our immersive environment: such are the elements and the energies that exist to be reworked and rechanneled.
Academic text (2004) -
The circus was filled with a grotesquerie of strange performers and bizarre acts.
Synonyms
23
8.2
A very ugly thing that looks frightening, often a building
16
1.4
A quality of being unpleasant to look at
2
9.9
A strange, often ugly scene that looks distorted
2
6.3
Extreme ugliness that makes people feel shocked or disgusted
1
6.9
A state of being very strange or unusual that surprises people
1
8.1
A state when something looks ugly and strange in a way that shocks
1
7.5
A quality of being very strange or different from most people
1
6.1
A quality of being strange or unexpected, like odd weather
1
7.5
A quality that makes something seem strange or not normal
The quality of being very ugly or cruel in a way that shocks people
Antonyms
How Distorted
Surface Forms
Morphology
grotesquerie = grotesque (semi-transparent) = grotesque + erie
The base adjective 'grotesque' clearly gives the core meaning, but the suffix '-erie' (an abstract/collective noun-forming element) is less familiar and can indicate either a quality or a collection, so the exact sense is not fully predictable for learners.
Etymology
Grotesquerie comes from grotesque, which itself comes from the Italian word grotto meaning 'cave', because artists once found strange, mixed figures painted in cave-like rooms. So, grotesquerie now means the quality of being oddly mixed or strangely shaped, which is why we use it for things that shock and fascinate.