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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ba·roque

Audio Help [buh-rohk; Fr. ba-rawk] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

(often initial capital letter

) of or pertaining 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 pertaining 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

5.	(often initial capital letter) the baroque style or period.

6.	anything extravagantly ornamented, esp. something so ornate as to be in bad taste.

7.	an irregularly shaped pearl.

[Origin: 1755–65; < F < Pg barroco, barroca irregularly shaped pearl (of obscure orig.; cf. Sp berrueco, barrueco granitic crag, irregular pearl, spherical nodule), prob. conflated with ML baroco invented word for a kind of obfuscating syllogism

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Baroque

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

ba·roque Audio Help (bə-rōk') Pronunciation Key
adj.

also Baroque Of, relating to, or characteristic of a style in art and architecture developed in Europe from the early 17th to mid-18th century, emphasizing dramatic, often strained effect and typified by bold, curving forms, elaborate ornamentation, and overall balance of disparate parts.
also Baroque Music Of, relating to, or characteristic of a style of composition that flourished in Europe from about 1600 to 1750, marked by expressive dissonance and elaborate ornamentation.
Extravagant, complex, or bizarre, especially in ornamentation: "the baroque, encoded language of post-structural legal and literary theory" (Wendy Kaminer).
Irregular in shape: baroque pearls.

n. also Baroque
The baroque style or period in art, architecture, or music.

[French, from Italian barocco, imperfect pearl, and from Portuguese barroco.]

ba·roque'ly adv., ba·roque'ness n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
baroque

1765, from M.Fr. baroque "irregular," from Port. barroco "imperfect pearl," Sp. berruca "a wart," origin unknown.

"This style in decorations got the epithet of Barroque taste, derived from a word signifying pearls and teeth of unequal size." [Fuseli's translation of Winkelmann, 1765]

Klein suggests the name may be from It. painter Federigo Barocci (1528-1612), a founder of the style. How to tell baroque from rococo, according to Fowler: "The characteristics of baroque are grandeur, pomposity, and weight; those of rococo are inconsequence, grace, and lightness." But the two terms often used without distinction for styles featuring odd and excessive ornamentation.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

baroque
adjective
1.	having elaborate symmetrical ornamentation; "the building...frantically baroque"-William Dean Howells
2.	of or relating to or characteristic of the elaborately ornamented style of architecture, art, and music popular in Europe between 1600 and 1750
noun
1.	the historic period from about 1600 until 1750 when the baroque style of art, architecture, and music flourished in Europe
2.	elaborate and extensive ornamentation in decorative art and architecture that flourished in Europe in the 17th century

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
baroque [(buh-rohk)]

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.

[Chapter:] Fine Arts

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

Baroque
An early logic programming language written by Boyer and Moore in 1972.
["Computational Logic: Structure Sharing and Proof of program Properties", J. Moore, DCL Memo 67, U Edinburgh 1974].
[The Jargon File]
(1995-02-22)

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

baroque
Feature-encrusted; complex; gaudy; verging on excessive. Said of hardware or (especially) software designs, this has many of the connotations of elephantine or monstrosity but is less extreme and not pejorative in itself. "Metafont even has features to introduce random variations to its letterform output. Now *that* is baroque!"
See also rococo.
[The Jargon File]
(1995-02-22)