kitsch

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

• (UK, US) enPR: kĭch, IPA^(key): /kɪtʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtʃ

kitsch (usually uncountable, plural kitsches)

1. Art, decorative objects and other forms of representation of questionable artistic or aesthetic value; a representation that is excessively sentimental, overdone, or vulgar.
   • 1939, Clement Greenberg, "Avant Garde and Kitsch", The Partisan Review,

     Because it can be turned out mechanically, kitsch has become an integral part of our productive system in a way in which true culture could never be, except accidentally.

• camp

• kitschy
• extremokitsch

kitsch (comparative kitscher or more kitsch, superlative kitschest or most kitsch)

1. Of art and decor: of questionable aesthetic value; excessively sentimental, overdone or vulgar.
   • 1989, Graham Greene, Yours etc: Letters to the Press 1945-1989, →ISBN, p. 243,

     […] a picture of lemur-eyed children of the sort one sees in the kitscher sort of Italian restaurant […]

   • 1996, Robert Silberman, "The stuff of art: Judy Onofrio", American Craft, Jun/Jul 1996, pp. 40-45,

     Abe Lincoln, Paul Bunyan and kitsch souvenir coconut heads come across as icons of masculinity.

   • 2005, Ronald Frame, "Critical Paranoia", Michigan Quarterly Review, Spring 2005, p. 285,

     I recognized her at once even though she wasn't wearing the tweed hunting outfit and the kitsch headwear.

• Although the forms kitscher and kitschest are attested, those formed on kitschy are more common, particularly for the comparative.

• corny

• schtik, shtick, skitch, thicks

German

kitsch (invariable)

1. kitsch

kitsch m (invariable)

1. kitsch

kitsch (plural kitsch, comparable)

1. kitsch; kitschy (of questionable aesthetic value)

kitsch m (uncountable)

1. kitsch (art of questionable aesthetic value)

kitsch (invariable)

1. kitschy

• cursi
• hortera

• (Swedish) IPA^(key): /kɪtɧ/

kitsch c (uncountable)

1. kitsch

   Min mosters handmålade madonnastaty i elfenben är ren kitsch.

   “My aunt’s hand-painted ivory Madonna statue is pure kitsch.”

• kitschig