surrealadj.
/səˈriːəl/ Having the qualities of surrealist art; bizarre, dreamlike.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > daydream or reverie > [adjective] > of the nature of daydreams
castle-built1841
super-real1841
super-real1859
pipe-dreamy1899
superrealistic1925
surreal1937
1937 Burlington Mag. Jan. p. xiv/1 Some ‘surreal’ influence haunts the regions of the Black Forest.
1952 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 4 May 26/5 I'll agree with that; however I didn't select the surrealism, the distortion, the intensity, as an experimental technique but because reality is surreal.
1956 Time 18 June 109/1 Author Gascar's power to evoke disgust, which he does by combining familiar objects in unfamiliar ways, until they become surreal and emetic.
1968 New Yorker 25 May 87/1 A surreally funny hour of film..which is goonish, rude, and altogether relieving.
1968 P. Oliver Screening Blues vi. 199 A startling flight of sexual fantasy, it [sc. ‘Coffee Blues’]..extends to surreal associations which imply the sexual virtuosity of the singer.
1976 S. Hynes Auden Generation vii. 227 As the 'thirties moved on toward the end, there was only the surreal... Even the agents of order were surreal and terrifying.
Derivatives
surreˈality n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [noun] > work of art > qualities generally
decoruma1568
humoura1568
variety1597
strength1608
uniformity1625
barbarity1644
freedom1645
boldness1677
correctness1684
clinquant1711
unity1712
contrast1713
meretriciousness1727
airiness1734
pathos1739
chastity1760
vigour1774
prettyism1789
mannerism1803
serio-comic1805
actuality1812
largeness1824
local colour1829
subjectivitya1834
idealism1841
pastoralism1842
inartisticalitya1849
academicism1852
realism1856
colour contrast1858
crampedness1858
niggling1858
audacity1859
superreality1859
literalism1860
pseudo-classicism1861
sensationalism1862
sensationism1862
chocolate box1865
pseudo-classicality1867
academism1871
actualism1872
academicalism1874
ethos1875
terribilità1877
local colouring1881
neoclassicism1893
mass effect1902
attack1905
verismo1908
kitsch1921
abstraction1923
self-consciousness1932
surreality1936
tension1941
build-up1942
sprezzatura1957
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > daydream or reverie > [noun] > dreamlike quality
surreality1936
1936 D. Gascoyne tr. Breton What is Surrealism? vi. 66 As I said in the Manifesto: ‘I believe in the future transmutation of those two seemingly contradictory states, dream and reality, into a sort of absolute reality, of surreality, so to speak.’
1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia IX. 693/2 The world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in ‘an absolute reality, a surreality’.
1980 J. O'Faolain No Country for Young Men xv. 319 Scale impresses him. He calls it ‘art’. ‘Surreality’, if you please.
suˈrreally adv.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > daydream or reverie > [adverb] > in dreamlike manner
with one's head in the air1890
surreally1982
1982 Times Lit. Suppl. 21 May 549/1 Surreally hard-edged, the world Child's Play projects is one where details have a hallucinatory vividness.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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adj.1936