Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Pieces of art or other objects that appeal to popular or uncultivated taste, as in being garish or overly sentimental.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Art, decorative objects and other forms of representation of questionable artistic or aesthetic value; a representation that is excessively sentimental, overdone, or vulgar.
  • adjective Said especially of art and decor that is considered of questionable aesthetic value; excessively sentimental, overdone or vulgar.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun excessively garish or sentimental art; usually considered in bad taste

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German Kitsch (originally used of kitschy painting ), perhaps from kitschen, to sweep or rake up street mud, or from German dialectal kitschen, to sell off cheaply.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From German Kitsch, from dialectal kitschen ("to coat, to smear"), the word and concept were popularized in the 1930's by several critics who opposed it to avant garde art.

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Examples

  • The term kitsch was invented in pre-Hitler Czechoslovakia to describe artifacts created with great technical polish in which everyone was always ridiculously happy or sentimentally sad, but lacking any real emotion.

    'The Bourne Ultimatum' success is not about the action 2007

  • A James Dean type Kirk at sunset looking at the Enterprise - his future destiny - constructed in the desert … that's what I call kitsch!

    TrekMovie.com 2008

  • The aesthetic that appreciates kitsch is partly ironic, involving a sort of archly detached amusement.

    Archive 2009-03-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • The aesthetic that appreciates kitsch is partly ironic, involving a sort of archly detached amusement.

    Hey, Janet! Have You Got Syfy? Hal Duncan 2009

  • The world of kitsch is in a certain measure a heartless world, in which emotion is directed away from its proper target towards sugary stereotypes, permitting us to pay passing tribute to love and sorrow without the trouble of feeling them.

    Roger Scruton on Beauty 2009

  • I mean, there is a certain kitsch appeal to that, but not much.

    Elvis Costello: 'I've never liked the word maturity. It implies decay' Tim Adams 2010

  • A desire for the experience of kitsch is a symptom of insecurity.

    Archive 2008-05-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2008

  • See the movie first please before making up your minds. jason B kitsch is the best part of friday night lights - and that is saying ALOT, because the show is phenominal. soooo, i was really hapy to hear ha had landed the role.

    First Look: Taylor Kitsch as Gambit in Wolverine | /Film 2008

  • A desire for the experience of kitsch is a symptom of insecurity.

    Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it Matthew Guerrieri 2008

  • Triumph des Willens in translation or perhaps kitsch is just kitsch?

    Matthew Yglesias » Road Movie to Berlin 2007

  • Borrowed from a nineteenth-century German word for cheaply-made, disposable versions of fine art pieces, “kitsch” denotes an accidental style or mode that often connotes tackiness and provincial tastelessness.

    In Defense of Kitsch | JSTOR Daily Catherine Halley 2020

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