different between kitsch vs garbage

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: k?ch, IPA^(key): /k?t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?

Noun

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.

Synonyms

• camp

Derived terms

• kitschy
• extremokitsch

Translations

Adjective

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.

Usage notes

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

Synonyms

• corny

Translations

Anagrams

• schtik, shtick, skitch, thicks

French

Alternative forms

• kitch

Pronunciation

Noun

kitsch m (uncountable)

1. kitsch

Adjective

kitsch (invariable)

1. kitsch

Further reading

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

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Kitsch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kit??/

Adjective

kitsch (invariable)

1. kitsch

   Synonym: pacchiano

Noun

kitsch m (uncountable)

1. kitsch

Further reading

• kitsch in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from German Kitsch.

Adjective

kitsch (plural kitsch, comparable)

1. kitsch; kitschy (of questionable aesthetic value)

Noun

kitsch m (uncountable)

1. kitsch (art of questionable aesthetic value)

Further reading

• “kitsch” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Romanian

Etymology

From German Kitsch

Noun

kitsch n (plural kitschuri)

1. kitsch

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from German Kitsch.

Noun

kitsch m (uncountable)

1. kitsch

Adjective

kitsch (invariable)

1. kitschy

   Synonyms: cursi, hortera

Further reading

• “kitsch” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from German Kitsch.

Pronunciation

• (Sweden) IPA^(key): /k?t?/

Noun

kitsch c (uncountable)

1. kitsch

Derived terms

• kitschig

Further reading

• kitsch in Svensk ordbok.

English

Alternative forms

• garbidge (obsolete or eye dialect)

Etymology

Late Middle English garbage (“the offal of a fowl, giblets, kitchen waste”, originally “refuse, what is purged away”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French garber (“to refine, make neat or clean”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *garwijan (“to make ready”).

Akin to Old High German garawan (“to prepare, make ready”), Old English ?earwian (“to make ready, adorn”). More at garb, yare, gear

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /????b?d??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????b?d??/
• (US, humorous, imitating a French pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??(?)?b???/
• Hyphenation: gar?bage

Noun

garbage (uncountable) (chiefly US, Canada, Australia)

1. Food waste material of any kind.

   Garbage is collected on Tuesdays; rubbish on Fridays

2. Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.

   The garbage truck collects all residential municipal waste.

3. A place or receptacle for waste material.

   He threw the newspaper into the garbage.

4. Nonsense; gibberish.
5. (often attributively) Something or someone worthless.
6. (obsolete) The bowels of an animal; refuse parts of flesh; offal.

Synonyms

• junk, refuse, rubbish, trash, waste
• See also Thesaurus:trash

Antonyms

• artifact, asset, catch, find, prize, recyclable, resource, treasure, valuable

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

garbage (third-person singular simple present garbages, present participle garbaging, simple past and past participle garbaged)

1. (transitive, chiefly US, Canada, obsolete) to eviscerate
   • 1674, John Josselyn, Two Voyages to New England, Made During the Years 1638-63 (quoted in William Butts Mershon, The Passenger Pigeon, 1907, The Outing Publishing Company):

     I have bought at Boston a dozen Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence.

   Synonyms: disembowel, eviscerate, gut

Adjective

garbage (not comparable)

1. (informal) bad, crap, shitty

See also

• Wikipedia article on garbage

Middle English

Alternative forms

• gabage

Etymology

From a derivative of Old French garber.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ar?ba?d??(?)/

Noun

garbage (plural garbages)

1. bird dung
2. entrails, offal

Descendants

• English: garbage
• Yola: graabache, graapish

References

• “garb??e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.