Adjective
picturesque (comparative more picturesque, superlative most picturesque)
- Resembling or worthy of a picture or painting; having the qualities of a picture or painting; pleasingly beautiful.
We looked down onto a beautiful, picturesque sunset over the ocean.
1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, “A Stranger from South Carolina”, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 3:A two minutes' walk brought Warwick—the name he had registered under, and as we shall call him—to the market-house, the central feature of Patesville, from both the commercial and the picturesque points of view.
1946 March and April, R. A. H. Weight, “Euston to the North-West”, in Railway Magazine, page 71:A dear old lady said she thought the ancient castle at Conway most picturesque, but that it was a pity they put it so close to the railway!
- (figurative, by extension) Strikingly graphic or vivid; having striking and vivid imagery.
picturesque language
Translations
resembling a picture or painting
- Bulgarian: живописен (bg) (živopisen)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 繪畫般的/绘画般的 (huìhuà bān de), 逼真 (zh) (bīzhēn), 栩栩如生 (zh) (xǔxǔrúshēng), 生動/生动 (zh) (shēngdòng), (picturesque scenery) 風景如畫/风景如画 (fēngjǐngrúhuà)
- Czech: malebný (cs), pitoreskní
- Danish: pittoresk, malerisk
- Dutch: pittoresk (nl), schilderachtig (nl)
- Esperanto: pitoreska
- Finnish: pittoreski (fi), maalauksellinen (fi), kuvankaunis (fi)
- French: pittoresque (fr)
- Galician: pintoresco
- German: (especially of nature) malerisch (de); (especially of settlements) pittoresk (de)
- Greek: γραφικός (el) (grafikós)
- Hebrew: ציורי
- Hungarian: festői (hu), pittoreszk (hu)
- Ido: pitoreska (io), piktinda (io), pikturatra (io)
- Italian: pittoresco (it)
- Lithuanian: vaizdingas
- Macedonian: сликовит (slikovit), живописен (živopisen)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: pittoresk, malerisk, naturskjønn
- Nynorsk: pittoresk, naturskjønn
- Polish: malowniczy (pl)
- Portuguese: pitoresco (pt)
- Romanian: pitoresc (ro)
- Russian: живопи́сный (ru) (živopísnyj)
- Spanish: pintoresco (es)
- Swedish: pittoresk (sv)
- Turkish: pitoresk (tr), resimsi (tr)
- Ukrainian: мальовни́чий (malʹovnýčyj), живопи́сний (žyvopýsnyj)
- Vietnamese: đẹp như tranh
- Yiddish: בילדעריש (bilderish)
|
Further reading
- “picturesque”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “picturesque”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.