kitsch
/kɪtʃ
/noun [mass noun]
Art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way: the lava lamp is a bizarre example of sixties kitsch...
- There's only one thing that's worse than kitsch and that's fashionably ironic kitsch.
- Hopkins's watercolors may sometimes come a little too close to kitsch for comfort.
- The sentiment behind this memorial may be admirable, but the result is pure kitsch.
adjective
Considered to be in poor taste but appreciated in an ironic or knowing way: the front room is stuffed with kitsch knick-knacks, little glass and gilt ornaments she offers kitsch interpretations of classic British dress, including a range of tartan mini-kilts...
- No hint of eighteenth-century neo-Palladian swagger or its kitsch modern imitations.
- Similarly, the theatricality that once branded some realist paintings as kitsch no longer seems a necessarily negative attribute.
- Word has it the mullet is so kitsch, it's fashionable again.
Origin
1920s: German.