Top Qs

Timeline

Chat

Perspective

-esque

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Remove ads

See also: es que and esque

English

Alternative forms

-esq' (rare)

Etymology

Borrowed from French -esque (“-ish, -ic, -esque”), from Italian -esco, from Latin -iscus, of Germanic origin, from Lombardic -isc (“-ish”), from Proto-West Germanic *-isk, from Proto-Germanic *-iskaz (“-ish”), from Proto-Indo-European *-iskos.

Cognate with Old High German -isc (German -isch), Old English -isċ, Old Norse -iskr, Gothic -𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍃 (-isks). Doublet of -ish and -ski.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɛsk/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Suffix

-esque

In the style or manner of; appended to nouns, especially proper nouns, and forming adjectives.
Kafkaesque
- 2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club‎, archived from the original on 30 March 2013:
  When the album succeeds, such as on the swaggering, Queen-esque “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us,” it does so on The Darkness’ own terms—that is, as a random ’80s-cliché generator.
Resembling; appended to nouns, especially proper nouns, and forming adjectives.
- 2022 November 25, B. Cost, “Man wins legal right to be 'boring' at work, gets $3K from company”, in New York Post‎, NYP Holdings, archived from the original on 18 August 2025, retrieved 27 November 2022:
  Needless to say, Mr. T abstained from the "Wolf of Wall Street"-esque extracurriculars on grounds that he didn't agree with Cubik Partners' definition of "fun," per his testimony in court.
- 2025 April 17, Linda Feldmann, “How Donald Trump is upending American culture”, in The Christian Science Monitor‎, archived from the original on 20 April 2025:
  But amid all the disruption and norm-breaking, it’s Mr. Trump’s apparently keen interest in shaping American culture that may be most intriguing. To critics, it’s nothing less than a sign of his authoritarian bent – reminiscent of the Stalin-esque playbook that made government diktats over artistic expression a feature of the old Soviet Union.

Synonyms

(resembling): para-, -oid, -form/-iform, -ish, -ly, -some, -y, (restricted to casual registers) -ass, (forms adjectives from nouns only) -like

Derived terms

English terms suffixed with -esque

Agatha Christie-esque

Archie Bunkeresque

architecturesque

Baudrillardesque

Belshazzaresque

Churrigueresque

Cinderellaesque

Corinthianesque

Dangerfieldesque

Darth Vader-esque

Donald Trumpesque

Don Quixotesque

Translations

Note: these translations are a guide only. For more precise translations, see individual words ending in -esque.

in the style of

Catalan: -esc (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: -式的 (zh) (... shì de)
Danish: -isk
Dutch: -esk (nl)
Esperanto: -eca, -eska (eo), laŭ-…-a
Finnish: -mainen (fi)
French: -esque (fr)
German: -esk (de)
Hungarian: -i (hu)
Italian: -esco (it)
Japanese: っぽい (ja) (-ppoi)
Portuguese: -esco (pt)
Romanian: -esc (ro) m
Russian: -е́скный (-ésknyj)
Spanish: -esco (es)
Swedish: -isk (sv) c, -iskt n, -aktig (sv)
Thai: ^{(please verify)} แนว (th) (nɛɛo)
Turkish: -esk, -vari, -sel (tr), -ce (tr)

resembling

Chinese:
Mandarin: -似的 (zh) (... shì de)
Danish: -agtig, -lignende
Dutch: -esk (nl)
Esperanto: -eca, -simila, -ŝajna
Finnish: -mainen (fi)
French: -esque (fr)
Hungarian: -szerű (hu)
Portuguese: -esco (pt)
Russian: -подо́бный (-podóbnyj)
Spanish: -esco (es)
Swedish: -lik (sv) c, -likt n, -aktig (sv)
Thai: ^{(please verify)} แนว (th) (nɛɛo), ^{(please verify)} แบบ (th) (bɛ̀ɛp), ^{(please verify)} อย่าง (th) (yàang)
Turkish: -esk, -vari

Anagrams

eques, squee

Remove ads

French

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *-iskos

Proto-Germanic *-iskaz

Proto-West Germanic *-iskbor.

Vulgar Latin -iscus

Italian -escobor.

French -esque

Borrowed from Italian -esco. Doublet of -ais and -ois.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɛsk/

Suffix

-esque (adjective-forming suffix, plural -esques)

-esque

Derived terms

Descendants

→ English: -esque

Remove ads

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads

Remove ads