picturesque

English

Alternative forms

• picture-skew (humorous)

Etymology

From picture +‎ -esque, a calque of Italian pittoresco, from pittura (“a picture, painting”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɪkt͡ʃəˈɹɛsk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

picturesque (comparative more picturesque, superlative most picturesque)

1. Resembling or worthy of a picture or painting; having the qualities of a picture or painting; pleasingly beautiful.

   We looked down onto a beautiful, picturesque sunset over the ocean.

   • 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, “A Stranger from South Carolina”, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 3:

     A two minutes' walk brought Warwick—the name he had registered under, and as we shall call him—to the market-house, the central feature of Patesville, from both the commercial and the picturesque points of view.

   • 1946 March and April, R. A. H. Weight, “Euston to the North-West”, in Railway Magazine, page 71:

     A dear old lady said she thought the ancient castle at Conway most picturesque, but that it was a pity they put it so close to the railway!

2. (figurative, by extension) Strikingly graphic or vivid; having striking and vivid imagery.

   picturesque language

Synonyms

• quaint
• scenic

Derived terms

• picturesquely
• picturesqueness

Translations

resembling a picture or painting

• Bulgarian: живописен (bg) (živopisen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 繪畫般的／绘画般的 (huìhuà bān de), 逼真 (zh) (bīzhēn), 栩栩如生 (zh) (xǔxǔrúshēng), 生動／生动 (zh) (shēngdòng), (picturesque scenery) 風景如畫／风景如画 (fēngjǐngrúhuà)

• Czech: malebný (cs), pitoreskní
• Danish: pittoresk, malerisk
• Dutch: pittoresk (nl), schilderachtig (nl)
• Esperanto: pitoreska
• Finnish: pittoreski (fi), maalauksellinen (fi), kuvankaunis (fi)
• French: pittoresque (fr)
• Galician: pintoresco
• German: (especially of nature) malerisch (de); (especially of settlements) pittoresk (de)
• Greek: γραφικός (el) (grafikós)
• Hebrew: ציורי
• Hungarian: festői (hu), pittoreszk (hu)
• Ido: pitoreska (io), piktinda (io), pikturatra (io)
• Italian: pittoresco (it)
• Lithuanian: vaizdingas
• Macedonian: сликовит (slikovit), живописен (živopisen)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pittoresk, malerisk, naturskjønn

  Nynorsk: pittoresk, naturskjønn

• Polish: malowniczy (pl)
• Portuguese: pitoresco (pt)
• Romanian: pitoresc (ro)
• Russian: живопи́сный (ru) (živopísnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: pitorèskan (sh)
• Spanish: pintoresco (es)
• Swedish: pittoresk (sv)
• Turkish: pitoresk (tr), resimsi (tr)
• Ukrainian: мальовни́чий (malʹovnýčyj), живопи́сний (žyvopýsnyj)
• Vietnamese: đẹp như tranh
• Yiddish: בילדעריש (bilderish)

Further reading

• “picturesque”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “picturesque”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.