statuary

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈstæ.t͡ʃʊə.ɹi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈstæ.t͡ʃu.ɛəɹi/

Etymology 1

From Latin statuāria (ars) (“(art) of sculpture”), feminine of the adjective statuārius (“of statues”).

Noun

statuary (uncountable)

1. The craft of making statues.
2. Statues considered collectively.
   • 2012, Ruth Ramsden, chapter 9, in Blue Murder at the Pink Parrot, London: Cutting Edge Press, →ISBN, page 137:

     Simply on aesthetic grounds I can almost applaud the Victorians’ fig obsessed Bowdlerisation of Greek and Roman statuary.

Translations

craft of making statues

• Bulgarian: ваятелство n (vajatelstvo), скулптура (bg) f (skulptura)
• Finnish: kuvanveisto (fi)
• French: statuaire (fr)
• German: Bildhauerkunst (de) f
• Greek: αγαλματοποιία (el) f (agalmatopoiía)
• Hungarian: szobrászat (hu)
• Russian: скульпту́ра (ru) f (skulʹptúra)

statues considered collectively

• Czech: sochy f pl, sochařská výzdoba
• Finnish: kuvapatsaat pl, veistokset pl
• French: statuaire (fr)
• Greek: αγάλματα (el) n pl (agálmata)

Etymology 2

From Latin statuārius (“maker of statues”).

Noun

statuary (plural statuaries)

1. A person who makes or deals in statues.

Translations

person who makes or deals in statues

• Bulgarian: ску́лптор (bg) m (skúlptor)
• Finnish: kuvanveistäjä (fi)
• French: statuaire (fr)
• Greek: αγαλματοποιός (el) m or f (agalmatopoiós)
• Hungarian: szobrász (makes) (hu) , műkereskedő (deals in statues) (hu)
• Russian: ску́льптор (ru) m (skúlʹptor)

Etymology 3

From the noun or the Latin adjective statuārius (“of statues”).

Adjective

statuary (comparative more statuary, superlative most statuary)

1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of statues.
   • 1655, [Hamon L’Estrange], The Reign of King Charles: An History Faithfully and Impartially Delivered and Disposed into Annals, London: […] E. C. for Edward Dod, and Henry Seile the younger, […], page 64:

     He [Francis Bacon] lyeth interred in the Church of St. Michael at St. Albans in Hartfordſhire, and hath there a fair ſtatuary monument erected for him of white Marble at the coſt of Sir Thomas Meautis, his ancient ſervant, who was not neerer to him living then dead: […]

   • 1862, James B[owen] Everhart, “Women”, in Miscellanies, West Chester, Pa.: Edward F. James, page 32:

     There is the lady’s own book, complete without a teacher—showing how the waist should be boddiced; the parasol handled; the statuary attitudes; the Parisian curtsy; the prettiest toss of the head, and swing of the train.

   • 2004, Keith A. Livers, “Lev Kassil’: The Soccer Match as Stalinist Ritual”, in Constructing the Stalinist Body: Fictional Representations of Corporeality in the Stalinist 1930s, Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., →ISBN, page 168:

     Characteristically, the photo series ends with the trainer having successfully contorted the boy’s body into a classical, statuary pose, even as the boy forces a pained smile for the camera.