Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A distinctive behavioral trait, especially one that calls attention to itself; an idiosyncrasy. synonym: affectation.
  • noun Exaggerated or affected style in an art.
  • noun An artistic style of the late 1500s characterized by distortion of elements such as scale and perspective.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Monotonous, formal, or pedantic adherence to the same manner; uniformity of manner, especially a tasteless uniformity, without freedom or variety; excessive adherence to a characteristic mode or manner of action or treatment.
  • noun A peculiarity of manner in deportment, speech, or execution; an exceptionally characteristic mode or method; an idiosynerasy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Adherence to a peculiar style or manner; a characteristic mode of action, bearing, behavior, or treatment of others.
  • noun Adherence to a peculiar style or manner carried to excess, especially in literature or art.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A group of verbal or other unconscious habitual behaviors peculiar to an individual.
  • noun Exaggerated or effected style in art, speech, or other behavior.
  • noun art, literature In literature, an ostentatious and unnatural style of the second half of the sixteenth century. In the contemporary criticism, described as a negation of the classicist equilibrium, pre-Baroque, and deforming expressiveness.
  • noun art, literature In fine art, a style that is inspired by previous models, aiming to reproduce subjects in an expressive language.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a behavioral attribute that is distinctive and peculiar to an individual
  • noun a deliberate pretense or exaggerated display

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

manner +‎ -ism

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian manierismo, from maniera, coined by L. Lanzi at the end of the XVIII century.

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Examples

  • Its the comparison of the mannerism of various stars. .trying to tell his \mannerism was

    Comments for NAACHGAANA 2010

  • Always easy, always lucid, always correct, we may find them; but who is the writer, easy, lucid, and correct, who has not impregnated his writing with something of that personal flavour which we call mannerism?

    Thackeray Anthony Trollope 1848

  • Sometimes I base part of characters on friends; for instance, a certain mannerism or personality trait.

    Marcia Muller talks about her heroine Sharon McCone 2010

  • As soon as he gets in the car, every mannerism is gone, he will crowd you off the road just as much as a New Yorker will or anybody else.

    Jottings From An Explorer's Notebook 1936

  • Thought waves came strongly from 24of6; the quality of the mental sounds different, but the mannerism was the same.

    The Dragon Lensman Kyle, David, 1919- 1981

  • His mannerism is a legitimate device for diverting the spectator’s attention from certain incongruities.

    The Théâtre Francais 1914

  • I may have observed upon those vulgar attacks on account of the so-called mannerism, the obvious fact, that an individuality, carried into the medium, the expression, is a feature in all men of genius, as Buffon teaches ...

    The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Browning, Robert, 1812-1889 1898

  • But we shall presently discover that, so far as pure physical type is concerned, he early began to generalise the structure of the body, passing finally into what may not unjustly be called a mannerism of form.

    The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti John Addington Symonds 1866

  • Oscott, at Old Hall Green, at Ushaw; there was nothing of that smoothness, or mannerism, which is commonly imputed to them, and they were more natural and unaffected than many an Anglican clergyman.

    Apologia pro Vita Sua John Henry Newman 1845

  • Green, at Ushaw; there was nothing of that smoothness, or mannerism, which is commonly imputed to them, and they were more natural and unaffected than many an Anglican clergyman.

    Apologia Pro Vita Sua John Henry Newman 1845

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