Word of the Day Archive
Sunday April 27, 2003
outré \oo-TRAY\ , adjective:
Unconventional; eccentric; bizarre.
This seven-year-old house of outré culture is the kind of place you can shop for a sculpture made out of working flamethrowers, videocassettes of underground movies, computer-generated art or a cute robot
-- David Sturm, "Berlin's Green Man, Running for Life", Washington Post, June 14, 1998
The area is tamer than in its bohemian heyday, but the outré spirit survives.
-- Brian C. Mooney and Rosemary Lappin, "Galleries of the Gods", Boston Globe, August 25, 1996
McCarthy cast herself as the rule breaker, the outré intellectual woman who emerged from an eccentric and rebellious past.
-- Ann Hulbert, "Keeping Score", New York Times, October 26, 1997
Unless you head for Harajuku, the heart of hip, where being outré is a requirement. Harajuku is home to Raggedy Ann wannabes, Elvis impersonators and Japanese punks, all turned out to attract attention.
-- Stephanie Strom, "Tokyo", New York Times, September 26, 1999
Outré comes from French, from the past participle of outer, "to exaggerate, to go beyond," from Latin ultra, "beyond."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for outré
