grotesquerie/ɡɹoʊˈtɛskəɹi/EtymologyFrom French grotesquerie, from grotesque (“farcical, grotesque”) + -erie (“-ery”), from Italian grottesco, from grotta (“cave, grotto”) + -esco (“-esque, -ish”). Equivalent to grotesque + -erie.nounAn instance of grotesqueness, a grotesque thing.Grotesque things collectively.Grotesqueness, the quality of being grotesque or macabre.“She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.”A genre of horror literature that was popular in the early 20th century, and practiced by writers such as Ambrose Bierce and Fritz Leiber.