Gothic

Goth·ic  (gthk)

adj.

1.

a. Of or relating to the Goths or their language.

b. Germanic; Teutonic.

2. Of or relating to the Middle Ages; medieval.

3.

a. Of or relating to an architectural style prevalent in western Europe from the 12th through the 15th century and characterized by pointed arches, rib vaulting, and a developing emphasis on verticality and the impression of height.

b. Of or relating to an architectural style derived from medieval Gothic.

4. Of or relating to painting, sculpture, or other art forms prevalent in northern Europe from the 12th through the 15th century.

5. often gothic Of or relating to a style of fiction that emphasizes the grotesque, mysterious, and desolate.

6. gothic Barbarous; crude.

n.

1. The extinct East Germanic language of the Goths.

2. Gothic art or architecture.

3. often gothic Printing

a. See black letter.

b. See sans serif.

4. A novel in a style emphasizing the grotesque, mysterious, and desolate.

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Gothi·cal·ly adv.

Word History: The combination Gothic romance represents a union of two of the major influences in the development of European culture, the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes that invaded it. The Roman origins of romance must be sought in the etymology of that word, but we can see clearly that Gothic is related to the name Goth used for one of those invading Germanic tribes. The word Gothic, first recorded in 1611 in a reference to the language of the Goths, was extended in sense in several ways, meaning "Germanic," "medieval, not classical," "barbarous," and also an architectural style that was not Greek or Roman. Horace Walpole applied the word Gothic to his novel The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story (1765) in the sense "medieval, not classical." From this novel filled with scenes of terror and gloom in a medieval setting descended a literary genre still popular today; from its subtitle descended the name for it.

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Gothic

Adjective

1. of a style of architecture used in W Europe from the 12th to the 16th centuries, characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses

2. of a literary style featuring stories of gloom, horror, and the supernatural, popular in the late 18th century

3. of or in a heavy ornate script typeface

Noun

Gothic architecture or art [Greek Gothoi]

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Gothicism, Gothic

the general term employed to denote the several phases of European architecture in the period 1100-1530 that employ the pointed arch, or their imitations.

See also: Architecture

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	Gothic - extinct East Germanic language of the ancient Goths; the only surviving record being fragments of a 4th-century translation of the Bible by Bishop Ulfilas East Germanic, East Germanic language - an extinct branch of the Germanic languages
	2.	Gothic - a heavy typeface in use from 15th to 18th centuries black letter font, fount, typeface, face, case - a specific size and style of type within a type family
	3.	Gothic - a style of architecture developed in northern France that spread throughout Europe between the 12th and 16th centuries; characterized by slender vertical piers and counterbalancing buttresses and by vaulting and pointed arches Gothic architecture architectural style, style of architecture, type of architecture - architecture as a kind of art form English-Gothic, English-Gothic architecture, perpendicular style, perpendicular - a Gothic style in 14th and 15th century England; characterized by vertical lines and a four-centered (Tudor) arch and fan vaulting
Adj.	1.	Gothic - characteristic of the style of type commonly used for printing German
	2.	Gothic - of or relating to the language of the ancient Goths; "the Gothic Bible translation"
	3.	Gothic - of or relating to the Goths; "Gothic migrations"
	4.	gothic - as if belonging to the Middle Ages; old-fashioned and unenlightened; "a medieval attitude toward dating" mediaeval, medieval nonmodern - not modern; of or characteristic of an earlier time
	5.	gothic - characterized by gloom and mystery and the grotesque; "gothic novels like `Frankenstein'" literature - creative writing of recognized artistic value strange, unusual - being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected; slightly odd or even a bit weird; "a strange exaltation that was indefinable"; "a strange fantastical mind"; "what a strange sense of humor she has"

Translations

Gothic [ˈgɔθɪk] adj → gótico

Gothic [ˈgɔθɪk] adj → gothique

Gothic [ˈgɔθɪk] adj → gotisch

Gothic [ˈgɔθɪk] adj → gotico/a