Word of the Day

: April 10, 2018

kitsch

noun KITCH

What It Means

1 : something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality

2 : a tacky or lowbrow quality or condition

kitsch in Context

Geraldine was amused by the kitsch sold in the roadside souvenir shop, but she wasn't tempted to buy anything.

"During my wait, I took in my surroundings, which reflect a thematic blend of 1950s-style diner and rural-American kitsch. The TV behind the barstool counter cranked out a steady diet of 'The Andy Griffith Show' reruns via Netflix." — The Grub Scout, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, 16 Feb. 2018

Did You Know?

"The fashionable clothing label … kicked off the revival last June …, putting its models in Miranda-inspired swimsuits and marching them through a gantlet of 50 tons of bananas," writes Mac Margolis in Newsweek International (January 2006) of a fabulously kitschy gala commemoration for the late Brazilian singer and actress Carmen Miranda. Since we borrowed kitsch from German in the 1920s, it has been our word for things in the realm of popular culture that dangle, like car mirror dice, precariously close to tackiness. But although things that can be described with kitsch and the related adjective kitschy are clearly not fine art, they may appeal to certain tastes—some folks delight in velvet paintings, plastic flamingos, dashboard hula dancers, and Carmen Miranda revivals!