MANNERISM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Mannerism

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/mˈænərˌɪzəm/ Listen

noun

Mannerism n.

Adherence to a peculiar style or manner; a characteristic mode of action, bearing, behavior, or treatment of others.

Adherence to a peculiar style or manner carried to excess, especially in literature or art. "Mannerism is pardonable,and is sometimes even agreeable, when the manner, though vicious, is natural... But a mannerism which does not sit easy on the mannerist, which has been adopted on principle, and which can be sustained only by constant effort, is always offensive."

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Etymology of 'Mannerism'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mannerism" Quotes from Famous Books

... right temper to seek out small sequestered loveliness. The constant recurrence of similar combinations of colour and outline gradually forces upon us a sense of how the harmony has been built up, and we become familiar with something of nature's mannerism. This is the true pleasure of your 'rural voluptuary,'—not to remain awe-stricken before a Mount Chimborazo; not to sit deafened over the big drum in the orchestra, but day by day to teach himself some new beauty—to experience some new vague and tranquil sensation ...

— Essays of Travel • Robert Louis Stevenson

... apprenticed to Hudson, the first portrait-painter of his time in England. But hardly two years had elapsed before the master saw himself eclipsed, and the two separated without great waste of love on the part of Hudson. From that moment, Reynolds's career was decided. He put the mannerism of his former master away from his pictures when he distanced himself from his studio, and, going soon after to the Continent, devoted himself to the study of great works of art. With what vigor ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 • Various

... replied, "but you were well recommended." The old man's manner, his emotion, his earnestness, somewhat embarrassed her. "Why does he look at me so earnestly?" she thought. Perhaps it was a mannerism peculiar to a man of ...

— The Music Master - Novelized from the Play • Charles Klein

... "Asolando" and "Demeter," those shrivelled blossoms from the stout old laurels touched with frost of winter and old age. But I find little to dwell upon in either of them. Browning has more sap of life—Tennyson more ripe and mellow mastery. Each is here in the main reproducing his mannerism. ...

— Margot Asquith, An Autobiography: Volumes I & II • Margot Asquith

... for awhile, and then if he became a little restless, moved under a new thought, he would slip his finger meditatively over his nose to the corner of the other eye. It did not signify anything in particular, merely an unconscious mannerism. Some men pull their hair, others gnaw their under lip, and with him it was a queer little way of rubbing ...

— The Glory Of The Conquered • Susan Glaspell

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