Gothic
Appearance
Besides its original meaning, "of or relating to the Goths (Gothos, Getas), a Germanic tribe" and thus the Gothic language and the Gothic alphabet, the word Gothic has been used to refer to distinctly different things:
- From a Renaissance perspective (originally Italian, gotico, with connotations of "rough, barbarous"), it conveyed the opposite of 'classical' or 'Roman', hence:
- High Medieval northern European art, especially architecture, see Gothic art, Gothic architecture, International Gothic
- The 18th century Gothic revival sought to revive High Medieval Gothic architecture.
- The Gothic (Naenia typica) is a species of noctuid moth, named after its patterns reminiscent of Gothic architecture.
- Another name for Blackletter, a script developed in the Middle Ages.
- High Medieval northern European art, especially architecture, see Gothic art, Gothic architecture, International Gothic
- from the 18th century, the word came to mean Germanic in general (synonymously with Teutonic), with grim overtones e.g. from the contrast of Germanic mythology with classical Greek mythology.
- A British literary genre from the late 18th and early 19th century, with a Victorian revival a hundred years later: see Gothic Novel.
- From its use in Romanticism, the word in the 20th century came to refer to anything dark or gloomy.
- a certain lifestyle (see Goth), music (see Gothic rock), and fashion (see Gothic fashion).
- A roleplaying computer game: Gothic (computer game)
- Gothic (movie), a 1986 film by Ken Russell.
- Gothic (album), an album released by the heavy metal/goth metal band Paradise Lost in 1992.
- more recent uses:
- Another name for sans-serif typefaces.
- Japanese Gothic typeface is a common printing style in Japanese printing.
- A chess variant: Gothic Chess.