kitsch
[kich]
- something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste.
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Origin of kitsch
1925–30; < German, derivative of kitschen to throw together (a work of art)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for kitsch
Contemporary Examples
In a show with no shortage of great performances, Kitsch stood out.
The fringes of the scarf lead to a collection of kitsch photos colored in purple dye.
The Daily Beast spoke with Kitsch about his exciting new role, the idiocy of gay-bashing, and much more.
Taylor Kitsch on ‘The Normal Heart,’ Homophobic Right-Wingers, and Gays in the MilitaryMarlow Stern
May 23, 2014
We already knew Florida was the capital of kitsch, but the Weeki Wachee Mermaid Show just outside Tampa takes it to a new level.
So, Kitsch returned to Vancouver with his head between his legs.
‘Lone Survivor’ Taylor Kitsch’s Journey From Homelessness to Hollywood StardomMarlow Stern
December 18, 2013
kitsch
- tawdry, vulgarized, or pretentious art, literature, etc, usually with popular or sentimental appeal
- (as modifier)a kitsch plaster bust of Beethoven
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Word Origin
C20: from German
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for kitsch
n.
1926, from German kitsch, literally "gaudy, trash," from dialectal kitschen "to smear."
What we English people call ugliness in German art is simply the furious reaction against what Germans call süsses Kitsch, the art of the picture postcard, and of what corresponds to the royalty ballad. It has for years been their constant reproach against us that England is the great country of Kitsch. Many years ago a German who loved England only too well said to me, 'I like your English word plain; it is a word for which we have no equivalent in German, because all German women are plain.' He might well have balanced it by saying that English has no equivalent for the word Kitsch. [Edward J. Dent, "The Music of Arnold Schönberg," "The Living Age," July 9, 1921]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
kitsch
[(kich)]
Works of art and other objects (such as furniture) that are meant to look costly but actually are in poor taste.
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Note
Kitsch in literature and music is associated with sentimentalism as well as bad taste.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.