Gothic

 
Pronunciation: /ˈgɒθɪk/

adjective

  • 1relating to the Goths or their extinct language, which belongs to the East Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It provides the earliest manuscript evidence of any Germanic language (4th-6th centuries ad).
  • 2of or in the style of architecture prevalent in western Europe in the 12th-16th centuries (and revived in the mid 18th to early 20th centuries), characterized by pointed arches, rib vaults, and flying buttresses, together with large windows and elaborate tracery. English Gothic architecture is divided into Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular.
  • 3 (also pseudo-archaic Gothick) belonging to or redolent of the Dark Ages; portentously gloomy or horrifying: 19th-century Gothic horror
  • 4(of lettering) of or derived from the angular style of handwriting with broad vertical downstrokes used in western Europe from the 13th century, including Fraktur and black-letter typefaces.
  • 5 (gothic) relating to goths or goth music.

noun

[mass noun]
  • 1the extinct language of the Goths.
  • 2the Gothic style of architecture.
  • 3Gothic type.

Derivatives

Gothically

adverb

Gothicism

Pronunciation: /-sɪz(ə)m/
noun

Gothicize

Pronunciation: /-sʌɪz/
(also Gothicise) verb

Origin:

from French gothique or late Latin gothicus, from Gothi (see Goth). It was used in the 17th and 18th cents to mean 'not classical' (i.e. not Greek or Roman), and hence to refer to medieval architecture which did not follow classical models (Gothic (sense 2 of the adjective)) and a typeface based on medieval handwriting (Gothic (sense 4 of the adjective))