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Wiktionary

bizarre

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French bizarre (“odd, peculiar, bizarre”, formerly “headlong, angry”). Either from Basque bizar (“a beard”) (the notion being that bearded Spanish soldiers made a strange impression on the French), or from Italian bizzarro.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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bizarre (comparative more bizarre or bizarrer, superlative most bizarre or bizarrest)

  1. Strangely unconventional; highly unusual and different from common experience, often in an extravagant, fantastic, and/or conspicuous way.
    His bizarre behaviour caused people to stare at him.
    • 1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      […] no, the abjectly unheroic nature of the death—that was the sting—that and the bizarre wording of the resulting obituary: “Shot with a rock, on a raft.”
    • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:
      Strange as it all was, bizarre as it may hereafter seem even to us who felt its potent influence at the time, it comforted us much; and the silence, which showed Mrs. Harker’s coming relapse from her freedom of soul, did not seem so full of despair to any of us as we had dreaded.
    • 1899 (please specify the page), Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part:
      […] she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step.
    • 1903 December 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:
      I confess that I had not up to now taken a very serious view of the case, which had seemed to me rather grotesque and bizarre than dangerous.
    • 1985, “A Love Bizarre”, in Romance 1600, performed by Sheila E. ft. Prince:
      That's what we are / We all want a love bizarre
    • 2011 October 22, Sam Sheringham, “Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎[1]:
      West Brom enjoyed more possession as the half progressed and were handed a penalty of their own in the 21st minute in bizarre circumstances.
    • 2019 September 6, Jordan Weissman, “How Not to Fight Anti-Semitism”, in Slate‎[2]:
      Unfortunately, she has used the attack as a launch pad for a bizarre and undercooked exercise in rhetorical bothsidesism, in which she argues that American Jews should be just as worried about college students who overzealously criticize Israel as they are about the aspiring Einsatzgruppen who shoot up shuls.

Usage notes

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  • The comparative and superlative forms with more and most are predominant. The alternative superlative bizarrest is fairly common, whereas the comparative bizarrer is very rare.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Danish

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Adjective

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bizarre

  1. definite of bizar
  2. plural of bizar

Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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bizarre

  1. inflection of bizar:
    1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
    2. definite neuter singular attributive
    3. plural attributive

French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Italian bizzarro.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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bizarre (plural bizarres)

  1. bizarre, odd, strange, funny
    Je me sens bizarre.
    I feel strange.
    J’ai une impression bizarre de te connaître.
    I have a funny feeling I know you.
  2. peculiar, quaint

Usage notes

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  • Bizarre can mean "bizarre" but it is also used for strange situations that are less extreme than would be connoted by "bizarre" in English.

Synonyms

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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German

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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bizarre

  1. inflection of bizarr:
    1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
    2. strong nominative/accusative plural
    3. weak nominative all-gender singular
    4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Interlingua

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Adjective

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bizarre (comparative plus bizarre, superlative le plus bizarre)

  1. bizarre
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