picturesque

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From picture +‎ -esque, a calque of Italian pittoresco, from pittura (“a picture, painting”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pɪkt͡ʃəˈɹɛsk/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

picturesque (comparative more picturesque, superlative most picturesque)

  1. Resembling or worthy of a picture or painting; having the qualities of a picture or painting; pleasingly beautiful.
    We looked down onto a beautiful, picturesque sunset over the ocean.
    • 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, “A Stranger from South Carolina”, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company , →OCLC, page 3:
      A two minutes' walk brought Warwick—the name he had registered under, and as we shall call him—to the market-house, the central feature of Patesville, from both the commercial and the picturesque points of view.
    • 1946 March and April, R. A. H. Weight, “Euston to the North-West”, in Railway Magazine, page 71:
      A dear old lady said she thought the ancient castle at Conway most picturesque, but that it was a pity they put it so close to the railway!
  2. (figurative, by extension) Strikingly graphic or vivid; having striking and vivid imagery.
    picturesque language

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