pastiche

[pa-steesh, pah-]

noun

1. a literary, musical, or artistic piece consisting wholly or chiefly of motifs or techniques borrowed from one or more sources.

2. an incongruous combination of materials, forms, motifs, etc., taken from different sources; hodgepodge.

pastiche

/ pæˈstɪtʃəʊ, pæˈstiːʃ /

noun

1. a work of art that mixes styles, materials, etc

2. a work of art that imitates the style of another artist or period

Word History and Origins

Origin of pastiche¹

1700–10; < French < Italian pasticcio pasticcio

Word History and Origins

Origin of pastiche¹

C19: French pastiche, Italian pasticcio, literally: piecrust (hence, something blended), from Late Latin pasta _paste ¹

Example Sentences

As Ganz archly observed, “the word for the politics that makes a pastiche of past glories to create a new type of regime is ‘fascism.'”

From Salon

The songs were still comedic — “Everything I write winds up a little warped,” he says — but were original tunes that were pastiches of, say, Frank Zappa or They Might Be Giants’ style.

From Los Angeles Times

When culture stagnates, and the degradation of political life feeds back into that culture, it doesn’t merely stay the same; it degenerates into a hideous pastiche of itself.

From Salon

This alienation breeds a twisted utopian mentality that not only rejects modernity, but also tradition and the actual past in favor of a cartoonish pastiche that misapprehends both the past and the present.

From Salon

I believe in the government institutions that make us a union of states rather than a pastiche of fiefdoms.

From Salon

Related Words

• collage 
• compilation 
• hodgepodge 
• reproduction