statuesque

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French statuesque. By surface analysis, statu(e) +‎ -esque.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /statjʊˈɛsk/, /statʃʊˈɛsk/

• Audio (US):

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Adjective

statuesque (comparative more statuesque, superlative most statuesque)

1. Resembling or characteristic of a statue. [from 18th c.]
   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     He was by no means a bad hero to look at, if such a thing were needed. His face was pale, melancholy, statuesque—and his large enthusiastic eyes, suggested a story and a secret—perhaps a horror.

   • 1901, H. G. Wells, The New Accelerator:

     We went out by his gate into the road, and there we made a minute examination of the statuesque passing traffic. The tops of the wheels and some of the legs of the horses of this char-a-banc, the end of the whip-lash and the lower jaw of the conductor — who was just beginning to yawn — were perceptibly in motion, but all the rest of the lumbering conveyance seemed still.

   • 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 161:

     Both Cripps and Limpet were struck statuesque with a sudden apprehension of what was happening in Cripps's room, and Cripps, with a professional knowledge of the gloomy nature of Uncle Tinfish's eye, could feel it taking in the situation, including the conscientious nude, with dreadful intensity.

2. (of a woman) Elegantly tall, graceful, and attractive. [from 19th c.]

   Christy Turlington is a statuesque supermodel famous for her fashion ads.

   • 1974, Mark Smith, “Nymphomania”, in The Death of the Detective, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, book 1 (Prelude to Murder), page 78:

     The grand, handsome, and much younger Mrs. Nettles, […] has the nose and cheekbones of a Cherokee and is so black and statuesque in her muscularity and boneyness that she seems carved by an ax from an effulgent vein of coal.

Translations

like a statue

Bulgarian: като изваян (kato izvajan) Catalan: escultural French: statuesque (fr) m or f German: statuengleich, statuenhaft (de), wie eine Statue Greek: αγαλμάτινος (el) (agalmátinos), αγαλματώδης (el) (agalmatódis)

elegantly tall and graceful

Catalan: escultural French: statuesque (fr) m or f German: stattlich (de) (tall and attractive, not necessarily graceful or elegant) Greek: αγαλματένιος (el) (agalmaténios) Polish: posągowy (pl)