different between gaudy vs rococo

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????.di/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???.di/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /???.di/
• Rhymes: -??di

Etymology 1

Origin uncertain; perhaps from gaud (“ornament, trinket”) +? -y, perhaps ultimately from Old French gaudir (“to rejoice”).

Alternatively, from Middle English gaudi, gawdy (“yellowish”), from Old French gaude, galde (“weld (the plant)”), from Frankish *walda, from Proto-Germanic *walþ?, *walþij?, akin to Old English *weald, *wielde (>Middle English welde, wolde and Anglo-Latin walda (“alum”)), Middle Low German wolde, Middle Dutch woude. More at English weld.

A common claim that the word derives from Antoni Gaudí, designer of Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica, is incorrect: the word was in use centuries before Gaudí was born.

Adjective

gaudy (comparative gaudier, superlative gaudiest)

1. very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

     The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.

   • 2005, Thomas Hauser & Marilyn Cole Lownes, "How Bling-bling Took Over the Ring", The Observer, 9 January 2005

     Gaudy jewellery might offend some people's sense of style. But former heavyweight champion and grilling-machine entrepreneur George Foreman is philosophical about today's craze for bling-bling.

2. (obsolete) fun; merry; festive

   • And for my strange petition I will make
     Amends hereafter by some gaudy day

   • And then, there he was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you ever saw...

Synonyms

• (excessively showy): tawdry, flashy, garish, kitschy
• Thesaurus:gaudy

Derived terms

• gaudily
• gaudy night

Translations

Noun

gaudy (plural gaudies)

1. One of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)

Etymology 2

Latin gaudium (“joy”). Doublet of joy.

Noun

gaudy (plural gaudies)

1. A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally held during the summer vacations.

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French rococo.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /???k??k??/
• Rhymes: -??k??

Noun

rococo (uncountable)

1. A style of baroque architecture and decorative art, from 18th-century France, having elaborate ornamentation.

Translations

Adjective

rococo (comparative more rococo, superlative most rococo)

1. Of or relating to the rococo style.
2. Over-elaborate or complicated; opulent.
3. Old-fashioned.

Translations

French

Etymology

Undoubtedly, a word from rocaille and barroco, to denote pejoratively a "rock" style, then gone out-of-fashion; invented in 1797 by Pierre-Maurice Quays, pupil of Jacques-Louis David and firebrand of an austere neoclassical style.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.k?.ko/

Adjective

rococo (plural rococos)

1. rococo (architectural style, all senses)
2. (abstract, derogatory) Relating to old traditions, which may be seen as foolishly outdated; archaic, old-fashioned, obsolete, backwards.

Further reading

• “rococo” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).