Gothic

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English

Proper noun

Gothic

  1. an extinct language, once spoken by the Goths

Adjective

Gothic (comparative more Gothic, superlative most Gothic)

  1. of or related to the Goths.
  2. barbarous, rude, unpolished, belonging to the "Dark Ages", medieval as opposed to classical.
    "Enormities which gleam like comets through the darkness of gothic and superstitious ages." (Percy Bysshe Shelley in a 1812 letter, Prose Works (1888) II.384, cited after OED)
  3. of or related to the architectural style favored in western Europe in the 12th to 16th centuries.
  4. of or related to the style of fictional writing associated with the Gothic revival, emphasizing violent or macabre events in a mysterious, desolate setting.
  5. (typography) in England, of the name of type formerly used to print German, also known as black letter.
  6. (typography) in the USA, of a sans serif typeface using straight, even-width lines, also called grotesque
  7. of or related to the goth subculture or lifestyle.
    Why is this gothic glam so popular? (New Musical Express 24 December 1983, cited after OED)

Noun

Gothic (plural Gothics)
  1. A novel written in the Gothic style.
    • 1996, Nora Sayre, Sixties going on seventies (page 180)
      One hundred fifty Gothics sold over 1.5 million copies a month last spring.

See also

Thesaurus

Neanderthal, Philistine, Victorian, animal, antediluvian, antiquated, antique, archaic, barbarian, barbaric, barbarous, baroque, bestial, bizarre, bookless, brain-born, brutal, brutish, classical, coarse, crude, deceived, dream-built, extravagant, fanciful, fancy-born, fancy-built, fancy-woven, fantasque, fantastic, florid, fossil, fossilized, functionally illiterate, grammarless, grotesque, grown old, heathen, hoodwinked, ill-bred, ill-educated, illiterate, impolite, led astray, lowbrow, maggoty, medieval, mid-Victorian, misinformed, misinstructed, mistaught, noncivilized, nonintellectual, notional, of other times, old-world, outlandish, pagan, petrified, preposterous, primitive, rococo, rough-and-ready, rude, savage, superannuated, troglodytic, unbooked, unbookish, unbooklearned, unbriefed, uncivil, uncivilized, uncombed, uncouth, uncultivated, uncultured, unedified, uneducated, unerudite, unguided, uninstructed, unintellectual, unkempt, unlearned, unlettered, unlicked, unliterary, unpolished, unread, unrefined, unscholarly, unschooled, unstudious, untamed, untaught, untutored, whimsical, wild

Etymology

Goth, English from the 17th century, ad Latin gothicus.

The various usages of the adjective are introduced nearly simultaneously in the first half of the 17th century. The literal meaning "of the Goths" is found in the 1611 preface of the King James Bible, in reference to the Gothicke tongue. The generalized meaning of "Germanic, Teutonic" appears in the 1640s. Reference to the medieval period in Western Europe, and specifically the architecture of that period, also appears in the 1640s, as does reference to "Gothic characters" or "Gothic letters" in typography.

Pronunciation

Translations

Proper noun

Adjective

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