kitschyadj.
/ˈkɪtʃi/, U.S. /ˈkɪtʃi/ Esp. of art, objects, design, and entertainment: having popular appeal but considered to be vulgar, of low quality, or lacking artistic merit, esp. due to excessive sentimentality or garishness; tacky, gaudy, mawkish; = kitsch adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [adjective] > qualities of works generally
wateryc1230
polite?a1500
meagre1539
over-laboured1579
bald1589
spiritless1592
light1597
meretricious1633
standing1661
effectual1662
airy1664
severe1665
correct1676
enervatea1704
free1728
classic1743
academic1752
academical1752
chaste1753
nerveless1763
epic1769
crude1786
effective1790
creative1791
soulless1794
mannered1796
manneristical1830
manneristic1837
subjective1840
inartisticala1849
abstract1857
inartistic1859
literary1900
period1905
atmospheric1908
dateless1908
atmosphered1920
non-naturalistic1925
self-indulgent1926
free-styled1933
soft-centred1935
freestyle1938
pseudish1938
decadent1942
post-human1944
kitschy1946
faux-naïf1958
spare1965
1946 Sight & Sound Winter 136/2 The kitschy aspect of the Spellbound music is represented by its Leitmotiv, a frequent phenomenon in film music.
1967 Time 17 Feb. 104 The kitschy existential slogan: ‘Things just happen. No reason, no reason, just a happening.’
1969 ‘R. Petrie’ Despatch of Dove i. 19 Her family owned a furniture factory. ‘We make..mostly kitschy bits fit to furnish Grimm's fairy tales.’
2008 St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 15 Feb. (Weekend section) 31 w They filled the interior with kitschy knickknacks and memorabilia, like a vintage Gulf gas pump and a Coca-Cola machine that once sold the little bottles for 6 cents.
Derivatives
ˈkitschily adv.
ΚΠ
1971 San Francisco Chron. 18 July Very Kitschily, its publisher is named Mame.
1987 Times 12 Sept. 19/4 The Old Vienna [restaurant]..is bound to..conform to and confirm British ideas of the country it kitschily represents.
2021 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 27 Apr. (Food section) 3 The ornamental platter, kitschily painted with lobsters, mussels and lemons.
ˈkitschiness n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > other
imponderability1799
uninfluentiality1880
dispensability1883
eliminability1895
quotidianism1913
peripherality1935
tokenism1962
kitschiness1971
second-lining1972
the mind > attention and judgement > bad taste > lack of refinement > [noun] > vulgarity
community1600
vulgarness1642
vulgar1655
vulgarism1749
vulgaritya1774
tigerism1836
plebeianness1840
shopkeeperism1843
vulgarianism1920
corniness1932
kitschiness1971
1971 N.Y. Times 18 July d21/3 The kitschiness of the style as a whole.
1993 Empire Aug. 110/5 There's a smiling, earnest kitschiness to it that scuppers both the entertainment and consciousness-raising strands.
1999 S. Rushdie Ground beneath her Feet (2000) iii. 63 I recognized, with some embarrassment, the kitschiness of the image.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2022).
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adj.1946