a. 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 an emphasis on verticality and the impression of height.
b. Of or relating to an architectural style derived from medieval Gothic.
4. Of or relating to painting, sculpture, or other art forms prevalent in northern Europe from the 12th through the 15th century.
5. oftengothicOf or relating to a style of fiction that emphasizes the grotesque, mysterious, and desolate.
6. gothicBarbarous; crude.
n.
1. The extinct East Germanic language of the Goths.
4. A novel in a style emphasizing the grotesque, mysterious, and desolate.
Gothi·cal·lyadv.
Word History: The expression Gothic romance unites two major influences in the development of European culture, the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes, such as the Goths, that invaded it. Gothic originally meant "having to do with the Goths or their language," but its meaning eventually came to encompass all the qualities associated with Germanic culture, especially the Germanic culture dominant during the medieval period after the fall of Rome. This period became a subject of popular literature in the 18th century, beginning with Horace Walpole's novel The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story (1765). From this work of Walpole's, filled with scenes of terror and gloom in a medieval setting, descended the modern literary genre of the gothic romance.
Gothic originally meant "having to do with the Goths or their language," but its meaning eventually came to encompass all the qualities associated with Germanic culture, especially the Germanic culture dominant during the medieval period after the fall of Rome.
The exact origin of the ancient Goths is a mystery. In the sixth century A.D., the writer Jordanes (who was likely Gothic himself) wrote a history of the Goths. He claimed that the Goths came from a cold island called Scandza, possibly in modern-day Scandinavia.
pertaining to the Middle Ages; medieval. (sometimes lowercase) noting or pertaining to a style of literature characterized by a gloomy setting, grotesque, mysterious, or violent events, and an atmosphere of degeneration and decay: 19th-century Gothic novels.
The origin of the word Goth is connected to the Roman Empire but has little or nothing to do with the subculture. Goths were a Germanic tribe who helped in the defeat of the Roman Empire.
The term Gothic was first coined by Italian writers in the later Renaissance period (late 15th to early 17th century). The word was used in a derogatory way as a synonym of 'barbaric'.
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