rococo

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“
The stitch between these groups is generally known as the rococo stitch.

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A style of art, especially architecture and decorative art, that originated in France in the early 18th century and is marked by elaborate ornamentation, as with a profusion of scrolls, foliage, and animal forms.
  2. noun A very ornate style of speech or writing.
  3. noun Music A style of composition arising in 18th-century France, often viewed as an extension of the baroque, and characterized by a high degree of ornamentation and lightness of expression.
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Examples (50)

  • They're incredible.I've spent my entire life surrounded either by clean-lined modernism or an almost equally spare New England aesthetic, and it's startling to be reminded that baroque and rococo (barococo?)
  • It's a bit rococo, possibly even tacky, but I love Jay Walker's library.
  • The settee and the matching armchairs, the dining table pushed against the far wall, the bookcase, all seemed to date back to the quietness of the pre-rococo era. —  The Maine Massacre - Janwillem van de Wetering - Grijpstra-de Gier 07
  • And for the rococo , I have more feeling for it, in a sense, than I once had, for, some two years ago, I passed through a long dynasty of French memoirs, which made me feel quite differently about the littlenesses of greatnesses. —  The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2)
  • First thought to be malfunctioning, the sprinkler system was actually turned on when the security firm for the rococo jewel box received a false fire warning. —  Opera Today
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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, probably alteration of rocaille, rockwork, from roc, rock, variant of roche, from Vulgar Latin *rocca.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French rococo, apparently a made word, based perhaps, as usually explained, on rocaille, rockwork (on account of the rockwork which figures in the style), from roche (Middle Latin roca), a rock: see rock.
 

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/rəˈkoʊkoʊ/
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