bizarre

English

Etymology

Borrowed fromFrenchbizarre(“odd, peculiar, bizarre”, formerly “headlong, angry”).Either fromBasquebizar(“a beard”)(the notion being that bearded Spanish soldiers made a strange impression on the French), or fromItalianbizzarro.

Pronunciation

• (UK)IPA^(key):/bɪˈzɑː(ɹ)/,/bəˈzɑː(ɹ)/

  • Audio(UK):

    (file)

• (US)IPA^(key):/bɪˈzɑɹ/,/bəˈzɑɹ/

  • Audio(US):

    (file)

• Homophone:bazaar(weak vowel merger)

Adjective

bizarre(comparativemorebizarreorbizarrer,superlativemostbizarreorbizarrest)

1. Strangelyunconventional;highlyunusualand different from common experience, often in anextravagant,fantastic,and/orconspicuousway.

   Hisbizarrebehaviour caused people to stare at him.

   • 1880,Mark Twain[pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens],A Tramp Abroad;[…],Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London:Chatto & Windus,→OCLC:

     […]no, the abjectly unheroic nature of the death—that was the sting—that and thebizarrewording of the resulting obituary: “Shot with a rock, on a raft.”

   • 1897,Bram Stoker,Dracula,New York, N.Y.:Modern Library,→OCLC:

     Strange as it all was,bizarreas it may hereafter seem even to us who felt its potent influence at the time, it comforted us much; and the silence, which showed Mrs. Harker’s coming relapse from her freedom of soul, did not seem so full of despair to any of us as we had dreaded.

   • 1899(please specify the page),Joseph Conrad,“The Heart of Darkness”,inBlackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine,volume CLXV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company,[…],→OCLC,part:

     […]she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck;bizarrethings, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step.

   • 1903December 26,A[rthur] Conan Doyle,“The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”,inThe Return of Sherlock Holmes,New York, N.Y.:McClure, Phillips & Co.,published February 1905,→OCLC:

     I confess that I had not up to now taken a very serious view of the case, which had seemed to me rather grotesque andbizarrethan dangerous.

   • 1985,“A Love Bizarre”,inRomance 1600,performed bySheila E.ft.Prince:

     That's what we are / We all want a lovebizarre

   • 2011October 22, Sam Sheringham, “Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Brom”, inBBC Sport‎^[1]:

     West Brom enjoyed more possession as the half progressed and were handed a penalty of their own in the 21st minute inbizarrecircumstances.

   • 2019September 6, Jordan Weissman, “How Not to Fight Anti-Semitism”, inSlate‎^[2]:

     Unfortunately, she has used the attack as a launch pad for abizarreand undercooked exercise in rhetorical bothsidesism, in which she argues that American Jews should be just as worried about college students who overzealously criticize Israel as they are about the aspiringEinsatzgruppenwho shoot up shuls.

Usage notes

• The comparative and superlative forms withmoreandmostare predominant. The alternative superlativebizarrestis fairly common, whereas the comparativebizarreris very rare.

Synonyms

• See alsoThesaurus:strange

Derived terms

• bizarre caddisfly
• bizarrely
• bizarre magic
• bizarreness
• bizarro
• unbizarre

Translations

strangely unconventional

• Bulgarian:странен(bg)(stranen),особен(bg)(osoben),чудат(bg)(čudat)
• Catalan:estrany(ca),estrafolari(ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin:Kỳ quái(zh)(qíguài),Không thể tưởng tượng／Không thể tưởng tượng(zh)(bùkěsīyì)

• Czech:bizarní(cs)
• Danish:bizar(da)
• Dutch:bizar(nl)
• Esperanto:bizara
• Finnish:outo(fi),eriskummallinen(fi),omituinen(fi)
• French:bizarre(fr)
• Galician:estrano,estraio,rechamante,zarapallón(gl),desavieso
• German:bizarr(de),komisch(de),seltsam(de)
• Hebrew:ביזארי(he)(bizári),מוזר(he)(muzár)
• Hungarian:bizarr(hu)
• Ido:bizara(io)
• Indonesian:aneh(id)
• Interlingua:bizarre
• Italian:bizzarro(it)
• Japanese:Kỳ diệu(ja)(きみょう, kimyō)
• Limburgish:biezar
• Maori:haraki,pakepakehā,pākehakeha
• Ottoman Turkish:دلی(deli)
• Persian:عجیب و غریب(phát)('ajib o ğarib),طرفه(phát)(torfe)
• Polish:dziwny(pl),cudaczny,arcydziwny(pl),przedziwny(pl)
• Portuguese:bizarro(pt),estranho(pt)
• Romanian:bizar(ro),ciudat(ro)
• Russian:неесте́ственный(ru)(nejestéstvennyj),ненорма́льный(ru)(nenormálʹnyj),причу́дливый(ru)(pričúdlivyj),стра́нный(ru)(stránnyj),эксцентри́чный(ru)(ekscentríčnyj),чудно́й(ru)(čudnój)
• Serbo-Croatian:bȉzāran(sh)
• Spanish:raro(es),extraño(es),estrafalario(es),bizarro(es),estrambótico(es),rocambolesco(es)
• Swedish:bisarr(sv)
• Turkish:tuhaf(tr),acayip(tr),garip(tr)
• Vietnamese:kỳ quái(vi)

Further reading

• “bizarre”,inWebster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary,Springfield, Mass.:G. & C. Merriam,1913,→OCLC.
• “bizarre”,inThe Century Dictionary[…],New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,1911,→OCLC.

Anagrams

• Brazier,brazier

Danish

Adjective

bizarre

1. definiteofbizar
2. pluralofbizar

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

bizarre

1. inflection ofbizar:
   1. masculine/femininesingularattributive
   2. definiteneutersingularattributive
   3. pluralattributive

French

Etymology

BorrowedfromItalianbizzarro.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):/bi.zaʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes:-aʁ

Adjective

bizarre(pluralbizarres)

1. bizarre,odd,strange,funny

   Je me sensbizarre.

   I feelstrange.

   J’ai une impressionbizarrede te connaître.

   I have afunnyfeeling I know you.

2. peculiar,quaint

Usage notes

• Bizarrecan mean "bizarre" but it is also used for strange situations that are less extreme than would be connoted by "bizarre" in English.

Synonyms

• baroque
• étrange
• original
• singulier

Related terms

• bizarrement
• bizarrerie

Further reading

• “bizarre”,inTrésor de la langue française informatisé[Digitized Treasury of the French Language],2012.

Anagrams

• barriez

German

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

bizarre

1. inflection ofbizarr:
   1. strong/mixednominative/accusativefemininesingular
   2. strongnominative/accusativeplural
   3. weaknominativeall-gendersingular
   4. weakaccusativefeminine/neutersingular

Interlingua

Adjective

bizarre(comparativeplusbizarre,superlativeleplusbizarre)

1. bizarre