baroque

[ buh-rohk; French ba-rawk ]

adjective

1. (often initial capital letter) of or relating to a style of architecture and art originating in Italy in the early 17th century and variously prevalent in Europe and the New World for a century and a half, characterized by free and sculptural use of the classical orders and ornament, by forms in elevation and plan suggesting movement, and by dramatic effect in which architecture, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts often worked to combined effect.
2. (sometimes initial capital letter) of or relating to the musical period following the Renaissance, extending roughly from 1600 to 1750.
3. extravagantly ornate, florid, and convoluted in character or style:

   the baroque prose of the novel's more lurid passages.

4. irregular in shape:

   baroque pearls.

noun

1. (often initial capital letter) the baroque style or period.
2. anything extravagantly ornamented, especially something so ornate as to be in bad taste.
3. an irregularly shaped pearl.

baroque

/ bəˈrəʊk; bəˈrɒk /

noun

1. a style of architecture and decorative art that flourished throughout Europe from the late 16th to the early 18th century, characterized by extensive ornamentation
2. a 17th-century style of music characterized by extensive use of the thorough bass and of ornamentation
3. any ornate or heavily ornamented style

adjective

1. denoting, being in, or relating to the baroque
2. (of pearls) irregularly shaped

baroque

1. A period in the arts, visual and musical, from about 1600 to about 1750, marked by elaborate ornamentation and efforts to create dramatic effects. Johann Sebastian Bach , George Frederick Handel , and Antonio Vivaldi were great composers of the baroque era.

Word History and Origins

Origin of baroque¹

1755–65; < French < Portuguese barroco, barroca irregularly shaped pearl (of obscure origin; compare Spanish berrueco, barrueco granitic crag, irregular pearl, spherical nodule), probably conflated with Medieval Latin baroco invented word for a kind of obfuscating syllogism

Word History and Origins

Origin of baroque¹

C18: from French, from Portuguese barroco a rough or imperfectly shaped pearl

Example Sentences

Fancy gallery openings, exclusive art fairs, and posh auction houses seem designed to scare away casual collectors who don’t have stacked bank accounts or the pedigree to distinguish rococo from baroque.

From Quartz

Having learned the rules of baroque music, the machines come up with more of the same.

From Nautilus

He passed the time moving between his cabin and the drinks car, a baroque affair with velvet curtains.

From MIT Technology Review

Dinner was a baroque affair, on the beach, a warm breeze gently blowing.

From The Daily Beast

Inside, the club is built like a baroque theater, with a dance floor in the center and rows of loggias up the walls.

From The Daily Beast

Who was the most erotic poet of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, when the quatrain reached its courtly zenith?

From The Daily Beast

It all gets even more baroque, and, in the short term anyway, even worse for the Tories.

From The Daily Beast

This New York paper gets L.A., and explores and reveals it in a fresh, fittingly baroque, and often unpredictable way.

From The Daily Beast

The performance one hears in a concert hall or opera house is no more than a baroque parody upon the thing the composer imagined.

From Project Gutenberg

The church is gray limestone, like the residence, with a baroque faade.

From Project Gutenberg

The building is a handsome one, in the baroque style, in the Calle de San Fernando.

From Project Gutenberg

The present church is baroque in style, but contains some works of art of earlier periods.

From Project Gutenberg

It is otherwise when a rich lady's dressing-table in baroque or rococo is decorated with such scenes.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• florid
• ornate
• rococo