Grotesque vs. Gothic

Grotesqueadjective

distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous

Gothicadjective

Pertaining to the Goths; as, Gothic customs; also, rude; barbarous.

Grotesqueadjective

disgusting or otherwise viscerally reviling.

Gothicadjective

Of or pertaining to a style of architecture with pointed arches, steep roofs, windows large in proportion to the wall spaces, and, generally, great height in proportion to the other dimensions - prevalent in Western Europe from about 1200 to 1475 a. d. See Illust. of Abacus, and Capital.

Grotesqueadjective

(typography) sans serif.

Gothicnoun

The language of the Goths; especially, the language of that part of the Visigoths who settled in Moesia in the 4th century. See Goth.

Grotesquenoun

A style of ornamentation characterized by fanciful combinations of intertwined forms.

Gothicnoun

A kind of square-cut type, with no hair lines.

Grotesquenoun

Anything grotesque.

Gothicnoun

The style described in Gothic, a., 2.

Grotesquenoun

(typography) A sans serif typeface.

Gothicnoun

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

Grotesqueadjective

Like the figures found in ancient grottoes; grottolike.

Gothicnoun

a heavy typeface in use from 15th to 18th centuries

Grotesqueadjective

Wildly or strangely formed; whimsical; extravagant; of irregular forms and proportions; fantastic; ludicrous; antic.

Gothicnoun

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

Grotesquenoun

A whimsical figure, or scene, such as is found in old crypts and grottoes.

Gothicadjective

characteristic of the style of type commonly used for printing German

Grotesquenoun

Artificial grotto-work.

Gothicadjective

of or relating to the language of the ancient Goths;

‘the Gothic Bible translation’;

Grotesquenoun

art characterized by an incongruous mixture of parts of humans and animals interwoven with plants

Grotesqueadjective

distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous;

‘tales of grotesque serpents eight fathoms long that churned the seas’; ‘twisted into monstrous shapes’;

Grotesqueadjective

ludicrously odd;

‘Hamlet's assumed antic disposition’; ‘fantastic Halloween costumes’; ‘a grotesque reflection in the mirror’;

Gothicadjective

characterized by gloom and mystery and the grotesque;

‘gothic novels like `Frankenstein'’;

Grotesqueadjective

comically or repulsively ugly or distorted

‘a figure wearing a grotesque mask’;

Grotesqueadjective

incongruous or inappropriate to a shocking degree

‘a lifestyle of grotesque luxury’;

Grotesquenoun

a very ugly or comically distorted figure or image

‘the rods are carved in the form of a series of gargoyle faces and grotesques’;

Grotesquenoun

a style of decorative painting or sculpture consisting of the interweaving of human and animal forms with flowers and foliage.

Grotesquenoun

a family of 19th-century sans serif typefaces.

Grotesque

Since at least the 18th century Italy (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks. In art, performance, and literature, however, grotesque may also refer to something that simultaneously invokes in an audience a feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as sympathetic pity.