[Vocabulary] "Sque" Suffix

• Chaplinesque - like Chapline.
• Picturesque - like a picture.
• Burlesque - caricature, mock, ridicule, satirize (like a burl)
  
  Burl - tree grown in informal manner​
• Châteauesque - like Châteaue
  
  Châteaue - An impressive country*house (or castle) in France.​

Can the word "sque" be attached to any noun to derive more words?

As in,
Wikipediasque - Like Wikipedia (having extensive knowledge)
Rockefellersque - Like Rockefeller (opulent and philanthropic)

amirdhagopal said:

• Chaplinesque - like Chapline.
• Picturesque - like a picture.
• Burlesque - caricature, mock, ridicule, satirize (like a burl)
  Burl - tree grown in informal manner​
• Châteauesque - like Châteaue
  Châteaue - An impressive country*house (or castle) in France.​

Can the word "sque" be attached to any noun to derive more words?

As in,
Wikipediaesque - Like Wikipedia (having extensive knowledge)
Rockefelleresque - Like Rockefeller (opulent and philanthropic)

Click to expand...

The suffix is "esque", not "sque".
No, you couldn't legitimately attach it to simply anything. It would have to be fairly obvious what you meant - that is, what properties of the index word you were trying to describe.

The suffix is '-esque'. It's meaningful, but don't go mad! It's usually used after proper nouns: Chaplinesque, as you say, and Kafka-esque... But if an adjective already exists, don't do it. For example 'like Shaw' is 'Shavian', not :cross: Shawesque:cross:

Also, beware of clashes with existing borrowed words. 'Funny' is 'funny'; a 'humoresque' is a short, light-hearted piece of music.

And when understanding existing words, don't assume that you can just add 'like a'. If a scene is picturesque, it's not just 'like a picture'; it's the sort of scene that would be chosen by a painter to be a subject. We also have the idiom 'pretty as a picture', which does mean 'very pretty'; and it doesn't mean 'picturesque'. (If a gentleman told his partner when she'd got ready for a night out 'You look picturesque, darling', she'd probably hit him. )

So it's probably safest to stick to words you know (although, as I said, the suffix is - as linguists say - 'productive').

b

Thanks to Raymott and BobK.

Thanks for deepening my understanding about the -esque words.

I understand that it is safe to use -esque only with well-known words, the meaning is not always same ("like a") and the meaning of picturesque is suitable for a picture.

Does picturesque always refer to natural scenery and does it not refer to human beings?

Say, Monalisa had such a picturesque face that actuated Davinci to portray her visage.

If the above one is correct, why the husband's statement "'You look picturesque, darling" is ludicrous?

amirdhagopal said:

Thanks to Raymott and BobK.

Thanks for deepening my understanding about the -esque words.

I understand that it is safe to use -esque only with well-known words, the meaning is not always same ("like a") and the meaning of picturesque is suitable for a picture.

Does picturesque always refer to natural scenery and does it not refer to human beings?

Say, Monalisa had such a picturesque face that actuated Davinci to portray her visage.

If the above one is correct, why the husband's statement "'You look picturesque, darling" is ludicrous?

Click to expand...

Picturesque is not applied to people.

Thanks emsr2d2 for your kind reply.

All that are pictured are not picturesque and hence Monalisa's face was not picturesque, but pretty as a picture.

amirdhagopal said:

Thanks emsr2d2 for your kind reply.

All that are pictured are not picturesque and hence Monalisa's face was not picturesque, but pretty as a picture.

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Yes, you could say that the woman whose portrait appears in the Mona Lisa was pretty as a picture (not my personal opinion, I think she's rather plain, but that's not the point!)

I'm not sure what you mean by "All that are pictured..."

Thanks emsr2d2 for your response.

I mean that the subject of a picture is not always picturesque. Everything that are captured in a painting or photo need not be picturesque. Picturesque is a metaphor and doesn't literally mean the topic of picture.

amirdhagopal said:

Thanks emsr2d2 for your response.

I mean that the subject of a picture is not always picturesque. Everything that are captured in a painting or photo need not be picturesque. Picturesque is a metaphor and doesn't literally mean the topic of picture.

Click to expand...

Yes, you're right. The word "picturesque" doesn't mean the subject matter of a picture/painting.

You can paint a painting of a picturesque scene!

:up: Not the subject matter itself, but such as might be worth making a picture/painting of. I could paint a picture of the Watford Gap Services* (if I were a painter), but I wouldn't because they're not picturesque.

*Service station on the M1 (motorway)

b