grotesque

• n. 奇異風格；怪異的東西
• adj. 奇形怪狀的；奇怪的；可笑的

來自grotto, 石窟，洞穴，詞源同crypt, 隱藏。來自意大利語，通常認為來自16世紀在羅馬廢墟洞穴發(fā)現(xiàn)的奇怪的壁畫，因而引申該詞義。

grotesque

grotesque: [16] Etymologically, grotesque means ‘grotto-like’. Its Italian source, grottesco, was used in the phrase pittura grottesca, literally ‘grotto-like pictures’, denoting wall paintings of the sort discovered in the excavated basements of old buildings. Many of them were evidently bizarre or highly imaginative, and so grottesca came to mean ‘fanciful, fantastic’.

English acquired the word via Old French crotesque (crotescque was the earliest English spelling, later re-formed as grotesque on the basis of French grotesque and Italian grottesca), and in general use from the mid-18th century onward it slid towards the pejorativeness of ‘ludicrous, absurd’. The colloquial abbreviation grotty is first recorded in print in 1964.
=> grotto

grotesque (adj.)

"wildly formed, of irregular proportions, boldly odd," c. 1600s, originally a noun (1560s), from Middle French crotesque (16c., Modern French grotesque), from Italian grottesco, literally "of a cave," from grotta (see grotto). The explanation that the word first was used of paintings found on the walls of Roman ruins revealed by excavation (Italian pittura grottesca) is "intrinsically plausible," according to OED. Originally merely fanciful and fantastic, the sense became pejorative, "clownishly absurd, uncouth," after mid-18c. As the British name for a style of square-cut, sans-serif letter, from 1875. Related: Grotesquely; grotesqueness.

1. I felt it was a grotesque intrusion into our lives.

我感覺那是對我們生活的一種干擾，讓人感到荒唐可氣。

來自柯林斯例句

2. a grotesque distortion of the truth

對事實的荒誕歪曲

來自《權(quán)威詞典》

3. She has become a grotesque parody of her former elegant self.

她成為了以前那個舉止優(yōu)雅的自己的怪誕模仿品.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

4. Her account of the incident was a grotesque distortion of the truth.

她對這件事的陳述是荒誕地歪曲了事實.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

5. The two stone lions, of grotesque shape, guard the entrance.

兩只形態(tài)奇異的石獅子守衛(wèi)著入口處.

來自《現(xiàn)代漢英綜合大詞典》