pickwickian means arbitrary or meaningless (of the usage of a word or phrase). It carries an Arena rating of 1534, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pickwickian ranks #162 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #488 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #771 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #834 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words.
Why “pickwickian” is a great word
Denoting a state of genial, benevolent, and gently naive innocence, particularly as expressed through simple, comically earnest manners. From the proper name Pickwick (the surname of the novel's protagonist) + the suffix -ian (forming adjectives meaning 'belonging to' or 'relating to'), coined in 1836 from the title of Charles Dickens's serial *The Pickwick Papers*. Unlike "Dickensian," which conjures the soot-blackened panorama of Victorian social ills, or "quixotic," which implies a feverish, chivalric idealism, Pickwickian describes a gentler, more domestic species of folly. It is the sound of brandy-laced laughter in a Rochester inn, the sight of a portly gentleman pursuing a purely theoretical science with boundless enthusiasm, the warmth of a crowded tavern where no one is ever truly turned away. It is the wistful faith that kindness, however misplaced, remains its own sufficient reward in a journey where the destination scarcely matters.
Etymology
From Pickwick + -ian, from The Pickwick Papers (1836) by Charles Dickens, in which members of the Pickwick Club explain away unparliamentary language as having been uttered "in the Pickwickian sense".
adj
- Arbitrary or meaningless (of the usage of a word or phrase).
- Having, or relating to, Pickwickian syndrome.e.g.“This pattern of EEG and respiratory changes has been observed during both diurnal and nocturnal sleep in Pickwickian patients.” — 1975, Morton F. Reiser, Organic disorders and psychosomatic medicine, volume 4, page 866:
- Of or relating to The Pickwick Papers, its storyline, or its characters (chiefly Samuel Pickwick himself).e.g.“Calverley's test of Pickwickian scholarship has been followed by similar tests with which students of the Holmesian chronicles may put their knowledge of their hero's exploits to the proof.” — 1960, George Frederick McCleary, On detective fiction and other things, page 60:
noun
- A person who has Pickwickian syndrome.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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