Biedermeier

American  

[bee-der-mahy-er] / ˈbi dərˌmaɪ ər /

adjective

1. noting or pertaining to a style of furnishings common in German-speaking areas in the early to middle 19th century, generally existing as a simplification of the French Directoire and Empire styles, usually executed in fruitwood with much use of matched veneers, and often displaying architectural motifs.

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Biedermeier British  

/ ˈbiːdəˌmaɪə /

adjective

1. of or relating to a decorative and furnishing style in mid-19th-century Germany, characterized by solidity and conventionality

2. boringly conventional in outlook; bourgeois

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Etymology

Origin of Biedermeier

Named after Gottlieb Biedermeier, imaginary author of poems actually composed by various writers and published in German magazine Fliegende Blätter from 1855 on

Example Sentences

In the Copenhagen captured by 18th-century painters, Nors writes, the “nation’s true nature” could be found: “a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, a Biedermeier idyll, bare of squalls, wilderness and drifting sands.”

From Washington Post • Oct. 31, 2022

A 1960s reproduction of a Biedermeier desk stands near an authentic Biedermeier chest of drawers, for example, albeit one with non-original hardware.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 2, 2015

I suggested that every Biedermeier has to end.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 24, 2014

“Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York,” which opens on Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, shows how he experimented with Biedermeier and Rococo curves, Egyptian lotus patterns and Gothic trefoils and pointed arches.

From New York Times • Dec. 15, 2011

Merely mentioning Biedermeier should not pass for wit.

From Time Magazine Archive