Quasimodo

¹ American  

[kwah-suh-moh-doh, -zuh-moh-] / ˌkwɑ səˈmoʊ doʊ, -zəˈmoʊ- /

noun

1. Low Sunday.

2. the ugly, humpbacked protagonist of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo.

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Quasimodo ² American  

[kwah-suh-moh-doh, -zuh-moh-, kwah-zee-maw-daw] / ˌkwɑ səˈmoʊ doʊ, -zəˈmoʊ-, ˌkwɑ ziˈmɔ dɔ /

noun

1. Salvatore 1901–68, Italian poet: Nobel Prize 1959.

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Quasimodo British  

/ ˌkwɔːzɪˈməʊdəʊ /

noun

1. another name for Low Sunday

2. a character in Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), a grotesque hunch-backed bellringer of the cathedral of Notre Dame

3. Salvatore (salvaˈtoːre). 1901–68, Italian poet, whose early work expresses symbolist ideas and techniques. His later work is more concerned with political and social issues: Nobel prize for literature 1959

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Etymology

Origin of Quasimodo

First recorded in 1840–50 Quasimodo ¹ for def. 1; from Late Latin, from the opening words of the introit antiphon for the Sunday: Quasi modo genitī infantēs … “As just born children …” (1 Pet. 2:2); 1830–35 Quasimodo ¹ for def. 2

Example Sentences

He had been thinking of the scene in the 1956 film adaptation in which Anthony Quinn, as the hunchback, Quasimodo, begs Gina Lollobrigida’s Esmeralda, the object of all the men’s attentions, for water.

From New York Times • Jul. 12, 2022

The French premier also gave the pope a more traditional gift - an 1836 edition of "Notre Dame de Paris", Victor Hugo's classic novel about the hunchbacked bell ringer Quasimodo set in Paris in 1482.

From Reuters • Oct. 18, 2021

Fisher was allegedly told by Johns to "play the character less like Frankenstein and more like the kindhearted Quasimodo."

From Salon • Apr. 7, 2021

Grotesque bell-ringer Quasimodo saves Gypsy Esmeralda from a mob and a corrupt priest in medieval Paris.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 20, 2019

Mr. Ray stepped to the side and yanked Quasimodo from behind him.

From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds