Gothic

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  They were passing the charming little Gothic palace known as the House of Desdemona
• WordNet 3.6
  • adj gothic characterized by gloom and mystery and the grotesque "gothic novels like `Frankenstein'"
  • adj gothic as if belonging to the Middle Ages; old-fashioned and unenlightened "a medieval attitude toward dating"
  • adj Gothic of or relating to the Goths "Gothic migrations"
  • adj Gothic of or relating to the language of the ancient Goths "the Gothic Bible translation"
  • adj Gothic characteristic of the style of type commonly used for printing German
  • n Gothic a style of architecture developed in northern France that spread throughout Europe between the 12th and 16th centuries; characterized by slender vertical piers and counterbalancing buttresses and by vaulting and pointed arches
  • n Gothic a heavy typeface in use from 15th to 18th centuries
  • n Gothic extinct East Germanic language of the ancient Goths; the only surviving record being fragments of a 4th-century translation of the Bible by Bishop Ulfilas
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Additional illustrations & photos:

Italian Gothic Architecture

BRIDAL CHEST. GOTHIC DESIGN

• Interesting fact: The Gothic-style Washington National Cathedral contains the remains of the only US president buried in Washington: Woodrow Wilson. William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy are buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
• • Gothic A kind of square-cut type, with no hair lines.
  • Gothic (Arch) Of or pertaining to a style of architecture with pointed arches, steep roofs, windows large in proportion to the wall spaces, and, generally, great height in proportion to the other dimensions -- prevalent in Western Europe from about 1200 to 1475 a. d. See Illust. of Abacus, and Capital.
  • Gothic Pertaining to the Goths; as, Gothic customs; also, rude; barbarous.
  • Gothic The language of the Goths; especially, the language of that part of the Visigoths who settled in Moesia in the 4th century. See Goth.
  • Gothic (Arch) The style described in Gothic a., 2.
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• Interesting fact: The great Gothic cathedral of Milan was started in 1386, and wasn't completed until 1805.
• • Gothic Of or pertaining to the Goths: as, Gothic customs; Gothic barbarity.
  • Gothic Hence Rude; barbarous.
  • Gothic An epithet commonly applied to the European art of the middle ages, and more particularly to the various Pointed types of architecture generally prevalent from the middle of the twelfth century to the revival of study of classical models in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This epithet was originally applied in scorn (compare def. 2), by Italian Renaissance architects, to every species of art which had existed from the decay of Roman art until the outward forms of that art were revived as patterns for imitation; but, although no longer used in a depreciative sense, the adjective is inappropriate as applied to one of the noblest and completest styles of architecture ever developed, which owes nothing whatsoever to the Goths, and is seldom now described as Gothic in other languages than English. See medieval and Pointed.
  • Gothic In liturgies, an epithet sometimes applied to the Mozarabic liturgy, or to the Gallican family of liturgies, in accordance with an incorrect theory that they were first introduced into Gaul and Spain by the Visigoths, or from the fact that they were in use in Gallican and Spanish churches at the time of Gothic domination. An ancient manuscript of the Gallican liturgy still extant is entitled a Gothic Missal (Missale Gothicum) by a later hand.
  • n Gothic The language of the Goths. The Goths spoke various forms of a Teutonic tongue now usually classed with the Scandinavian as the eastern branch of the Teutonic family, though it has also close affinities with the western branch (Old High German, Anglo-Saxon, etc.). All forms of Gothic have perished without record, except that spoken by some of the western Goths (Visigoths), who at the beginning of the fourth century occupied Dacia (Wallachia, etc.), and who before the end of that century passed over in great numbers into Mœsia (now Bulgaria, etc.). Revolting against the Roman empire, they extended their conquests even into Gaul and Spain. Their language, now called Mœsogothic or simply Gothic, is preserved in the fragmentary remains of a nearly complete translation of the Bible made by their bishop, Wulfila (a name also used in the forms Ulfila, Ulphila, Ulfilas) (who lived in the fourth century a. d.), and in some other fragments. These remains are of the highest philological importance, preceding by several centuries the next earliest Teutonic records (Anglo-Saxon and Old High German). The language bears a primitive aspect, indicating its existence under practically undisturbed linguistic conditions for a long period before its appearance in the records. Apart from the Latin and Greek words introduced with Christianity, Gothic shows little trace of foreign influence except in the presence of a few words borrowed from the neighboring Slavs. As the oldest recorded Teutonic tongue, and usually but not always nearest the original Teutonic type, it stands at the head of the languages of its class, to which it bears a relation like that of the Sanskrit to the other languages of the Indo-European family.
  • n Gothic In bibliography, an early form of black-faced and pointed letters, as shown in printed books and manuscripts.
  • n Gothic [lowercase] The American name for a style of square-cut printing-type without serifs or hair-lines, after the style of old Roman mural letters. What is called simply gothic in America is known in England as grotesque, and lighter faces known in England as sans-serif are in America called gothic condensed, light-face gothic, etc.
  • n Gothic The so-called Gothic style of architecture. See I., 3.
  • Gothic Belonging to or characteristic of ‘Goths’ or ‘barbarians’ in matters of literature or art.
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• Interesting fact: The painting, "American Gothic" depicts the sister and the dentist of artist Grant Wood as rural farm folk.
• • adj Gothic belonging to the Goths or their language: barbarous: romantic: denoting a style of architecture with high-pointed arches, clustered columns, &c. (applied in reproach at the time of the Renaissance)
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• Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  

  “The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.”
• Kenneth Clark

  

  “Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of Western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process.”

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