mannerism

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A noticeable personal habit, a verbal or other (often, but not necessarily unconscious)…

   A noticeable personal habit, a verbal or other (often, but not necessarily unconscious) habitual behavior peculiar to an individual.

   • The Inspector looked round. He knew well enough that they were alone in the study at The Turrets, but the action had become something of a mannerism with him.
2. 2

   Exaggerated or affected style in art, speech, or other behavior.

   • artists […] dabblingly pursuing a kind of formalist mannerism merely in the interest of careerism
   • He generally spoke without academic mannerism, though on occasion he dipped into the over-wrought thickets of eduspeak to find words like “antithetical” or “foci” or “interface.”
3. 3

   In literature, an ostentatious and unnatural style of the second half of the sixteenth…

   In literature, an ostentatious and unnatural style of the second half of the sixteenth century. In the contemporary criticism, described as a negation of the classicist equilibrium, pre-Baroque, and deforming expressiveness.

4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      In fine art, a style that is inspired by previous models, aiming to reproduce subjects in…

      In fine art, a style that is inspired by previous models, aiming to reproduce subjects in an expressive language.

   2. 5

      A style of art developed at the end of the High Renaissance, characterized by the…

      A style of art developed at the end of the High Renaissance, characterized by the deliberate distortion and exaggeration of perspective and especially the elongation of figures.

The neighborhood

• synonymidiosyncrasy
• synonymquirk