Gothic

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Of or relating to the Goths or their language.
2. adj. Germanic; Teutonic.
3. adj. Of or relating to the Middle Ages; medieval.
4. adj. Of or relating to an architectural style prevalent in western Europe from the 12th through the 15th century and characterized by pointed arches, rib vaulting, and a developing emphasis on verticality and the impression of height.
5. adj. Of or relating to an architectural style derived from medieval Gothic.
6. adj. Of or relating to painting, sculpture, or other art forms prevalent in northern Europe from the 12th through the 15th century.
7. adj. Of or relating to a style of fiction that emphasizes the grotesque, mysterious, and desolate.
8. adj. Barbarous; crude.
9. n. The extinct East Germanic language of the Goths.
10. n. Gothic art or architecture.
11. n. Printing See black letter.
12. n. Printing See sans serif.
13. n. A novel in a style emphasizing the grotesque, mysterious, and desolate.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Of or pertaining to the Goths: as, Gothic customs; Gothic barbarity.
2. Hence Rude; barbarous.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. n. 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.
6. n. In bibliography, an early form of black-faced and pointed letters, as shown in printed books and manuscripts.
7. n. [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.
8. n. The so-called Gothic style of architecture. See I., 3.
9. Belonging to or characteristic of ‘Goths’ or ‘barbarians’ in matters of literature or art.

Wiktionary

1. n. an extinct language, once spoken by the Goths
2. adj. of or related to the Goths.
3. adj. barbarous, rude, unpolished, belonging to the "Dark Ages", medieval as opposed to classical.
4. adj. of or related to the architectural style favored in western Europe in the 12th to 16th centuries.
5. adj. of or related to the style of fictional writing associated with the Gothic revival, emphasizing violent or macabre events in a mysterious, desolate setting.
6. adj. in England, of the name of type formerly used to print German, also known as black letter.
7. adj. in the USA, of a sans serif typeface using straight, even-width lines, also called grotesque
8. adj. of or related to the goth subculture or lifestyle.
9. n. A novel written in the Gothic style.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Pertaining to the Goths; ; also, rude; barbarous.
2. adj. 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.
3. n. The language of the Goths; especially, the language of that part of the Visigoths who settled in Moesia in the 4th century. See goth.
4. n. A kind of square-cut type, with no hair lines.
5. n. The style described in Gothic, a., 2.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. characterized by gloom and mystery and the grotesque
2. adj. characteristic of the style of type commonly used for printing German
3. adj. of or relating to the language of the ancient Goths
4. n. 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
5. adj. of or relating to the Goths
6. adj. as if belonging to the Middle Ages; old-fashioned and unenlightened
7. n. a heavy typeface in use from 15th to 18th centuries
8. n. 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