grimdark

adj
/ˈɡɹɪmdɑːk/UK/ˈɡɹɪmˌdɑɹk/US

Etymology

From grim (adjective) + dark (adjective), inspired by the tagline of the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000 (its rulebook first published in September 1987): In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

  1. derived from *dʰer- — “dull, dirty
  2. derived from *dʰerg- — “dim, dull
  3. inherited from *derk — “dark
  4. inherited from deorc
  5. inherited from derk
  6. compounded as grimdark — “grim + dark

Definitions

  1. Of a film, television programme, video game, written work, etc.

    Of a film, television programme, video game, written work, etc.: having a gloomy, dystopian atmosphere.

    • If your character is a more-or-less ordinary little girl fighting for her life as a usual thing, that's a fairly GRIMDARK setting; it implies that there isn't any Good authority with both the power and the will to protect them.
    • Most original. Brilliantly so! What's not to like? "Jarringly non-grimdark," carpers will sneer. Oh, yeah? What's not Grimdark about – / * Droids? / * Vagina heads? / * Gundam suits (desu)?
  2. The literary genre of speculative fiction that is amoral, dystopian, or violent.

    • It shows you piles of corpses, then revels in its mechs and future-war grimdark.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for grimdark. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA