Quasimodo

¹

[ kwah-suh-moh-doh, -zuh-moh- ]

noun

1. Low Sunday.
2. the ugly, humpbacked protagonist of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo.

Quasimodo

²

[ kwah-suh-moh-doh, -zuh-moh-; Italian kwah-zee-maw-daw ]

noun

1. Sal·va·to·re [sahl-vah-, taw, -, r, e], 1901–68, Italian poet: Nobel Prize 1959.

Quasimodo

/ ˌkwɔːzɪˈməʊdəʊ /

noun

1. another name for Low Sunday
2. a character in Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), a grotesque hunch-backed bellringer of the cathedral of Notre Dame
3. kwaˈziːmodo QuasimodoSalvatore19011968MItalianWRITING: poet Salvatore (salvaˈtoːre). 1901–68, Italian poet, whose early work expresses symbolist ideas and techniques. His later work is more concerned with political and social issues: Nobel prize for literature 1959

Word History and Origins

Origin of Quasimodo¹

First recorded in 1840–50 Quasimodo ¹fordef 1; from Late Latin, from the opening words of the introit antiphon for the Sunday: Quasi modo genitī infantēs … “As just born children …” (1 Pet. 2:2); 1830–35 Quasimodo ¹fordef 2

Word History and Origins

Origin of Quasimodo¹

(sense 1) from the opening words of the Latin introit for that day, quasimodo geniti infantes as new-born babies

Example Sentences

Chileans mark the Quasimodo Feast, a celebration held on the first Sunday after Easter when horseback riders known as “Huasos” accompany priests in the rural commune of Colina to give communion to the sick, in a procession that pays tribute to the Virgin of Carmen.

From Seattle Times

“I tell people I’m the second-most famous bell ringer after Quasimodo,” he said in a 2016 interview with Vulture, New York magazine’s culture site.

From New York Times

The musical, which is sung in French with English supertitles, follows the beautiful Esmeralda and the three men who vie to win her love: the kind hunchback Quasimodo; the twisted archdeacon Frollo; and the egotistic soldier Phoebus.

From New York Times

You’ve heard of Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, the actor Brian Cox announces at the start of “Quasi,” but you haven’t heard this version.

From New York Times

He had been thinking of the scene in the 1956 film adaptation in which Anthony Quinn, as the hunchback, Quasimodo, begs Gina Lollobrigida’s Esmeralda, the object of all the men’s attentions, for water.

From New York Times