curiosa
Americanplural noun
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books, pamphlets, etc., dealing with unusual subjects.
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(in selling and collecting books) books, pamphlets, etc., containing pornographic literature or art; erotica.
noun
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curiosities
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books on strange subjects, esp erotica
Etymology
Origin of curiosa
1880–85; < New Latin: unusual things, special use of neuter plural of Latin cūriōsus careful, inquisitive. See curious
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As is the case with most pop culture curiosa, “Shōgun” only deserves partial credit or blame for escalating America’s fetishizing of Japanese style and customs.
From Salon • Mar. 8, 2024
The brothers were touring the Mütter Museum, a 19th-century repository of curiosa at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, garbed somewhat disappointingly in chinos and sweaters.
From New York Times • Oct. 15, 2010
Maps on tissue-thin paper, which could be eaten if need be, were among the curiosa of World War II, publicly shown for the first time in New York last week.
From Time Magazine Archive
Both hope to draw more heavily on Yaqui and Papago folklore than on the literary curiosa that usually deadens quarterlies.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the other hand, however, it may be said that a special quality of her verse is a curiosa felicitas which makes a metrical blemish tell as a kind of suggestive grace.
From Old Familiar Faces by Watts-Dunton, Theodore
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
