English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From the French.

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˌɡɹəʊˈtɛskəɹi/

Noun edit

grotesquerie (countable and uncountable, plural grotesqueries)

  1. The quality of being grotesque or macabre.
    • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, “Burglary”, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, →OCLC, page 35:
      She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realising that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.
    • 2009 January 12, Steve Smith, “Worlds Apart: Harmonies Earthbound and Lunar”, in New York Times[1]:
      The tone is brittle and morbid, emphasizing the eerie grotesquerie of Albert Giraud's poems.
  2. (literature) A genre of horror literature that was popular in the early 20th century, and practiced by writers such as Ambrose Bierce and Fritz Leiber.

Translations edit

See also edit