caricature

See also: caricaturé

English

A caricature of Abraham Lincoln.

Alternative forms

• caricatura (archaic)

Etymology

From French caricature, from Italian caricatura.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛɹɪkət͡ʃʊɚ/, /ˈkɛɹɪkət͡ʃɚ/, (rare) /kəˈɹɪkət͡ʃʊɚ/, (also rare) /kəˈɹɪkət͡ʃɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkæɹɪkətʃʊə/, /ˈkæɹɪkətʃə/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Noun

caricature (plural caricatures)

1. A pictorial representation of someone in which distinguishing features are exaggerated for comic effect.
   • 2006 March 7, Shu-ling Ko, “Cartoonists decry the lack of interest in their talents”, in Taipei Times‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2006-12-30, Taiwan News, page 3‎^[2]:

     Lo Ching-chong (羅慶忠), better known as L.C.C., showed off a caricature of Lu he did in 2001. In the black-and-white drawing, Lu sports a bird's nest-like hairdo, with a bird perched in it.

   • 2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[3]:

     Men In Black 3 lacks the novelty of the first film, and its take on the late ’60s feels an awful lot like a psychedelic dress-up party, all broad caricatures and groovy vibes.

2. A grotesque misrepresentation.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 3, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     A grotesque caricature of virtue.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     Anything more appalling than this jumbled mass of the remains of a departed race I cannot imagine, and what made it even more dreadful was that in this dry air a considerable number of the bodies had simply become desiccated with the skin still on them, and now, fixed in every conceivable position, stared at us out of the mountain of white bones, grotesquely horrible caricatures of humanity.

3. (computing) In facial recognition systems, a face that has been modified to look less like the average face, and thus more distinctive.

Derived terms

• anticaricature
• caricature plant (Graptophyllum pictum)
• caricaturise (uncommon), caricaturisation, caricaturish

Adjective

caricature (not comparable)

1. Having the characteristics of a caricature, grotesque.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 274–275:

     That singularly foolish old lady, her grandmother, got up a sort of caricature conspiracy, and Miss Churchill was to have been married to a coxcombical Jacobite, of the name of Trevanion; but he was arrested in the church, though he has since escaped by means of the jailor's daughter.

Translations

pictorial representation of someone for comic effect

• Arabic: كَارِيكَاتِير m (kārīkātēr), كَارِيكَاتُور m (kārīkātūr), رَسْم هَزْلِيّ m (rasm hazliyy)
• Armenian: ծաղրանկար (hy) (caġrankar)
• Belarusian: карыкату́ра f (karykatúra), шарж m (šarž)
• Catalan: caricatura (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 卡通 (zh) (kǎtōng), 諷刺畫／讽刺画 (zh) (fěngcìhuà), 漫畫／漫画 (zh) (mànhuà)

• Czech: karikatura (cs) f
• Danish: karikatur c
• Dutch: karikatuur (nl) f
• Esperanto: karikaturo
• Finnish: pilakuva (fi), karikatyyri (fi)
• French: caricature (fr) f
• Friulian: caricature f
• German: Karikatur (de) f
• Hungarian: karikatúra (hu)
• Icelandic: skopmynd f
• Ido: karikaturo (io)
• Indonesian: karikatur (id)
• Japanese: 風刺画 (ふうしが, fūshiga), 戯画 (ja) (ぎが, giga), 漫画 (ja) (まんが, manga), カリカチュア (karikachua)
• Kalmyk: шог зург (şog zurg)
• Kazakh: карикатура (karikatura)
• Korean: 만화(漫畫) (ko) (manhwa), 캐리커처 (ko) (kaerikeocheo), 희화(戱畵) (ko) (huihwa)
• Malay: karikatur
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: karikatur m

  Nynorsk: karikatur m

• Persian: کاریکاتور (fa) (kârikâtur)
• Polish: karykatura (pl) f
• Portuguese: caricatura (pt) f
• Russian: карикату́ра (ru) f (karikatúra), шарж (ru) m (šarž)
• Slovak: karikatúra f
• Spanish: caricatura (es) f
• Swedish: karikatyr (sv) c
• Turkish: karikatür (tr)
• Ukrainian: карикату́ра f (karykatúra), шарж m (šarž)
• Vietnamese: tranh biếm hoạ
• Yiddish: קאַריקאַטור m (karikatur), קאַטאָוועס (katoves)

grotesque misrepresentation

• Arabic: كَارِيكَاتِير m (kārīkātēr), كَارِيكَاتُور m (kārīkātūr), رَسْم هَزْلِيّ m (rasm hazliyy)
• Catalan: caricatura (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 卡通 (zh) (kǎtōng), 諷刺畫／讽刺画 (zh) (fěngcìhuà)

• Czech: karikatura (cs) f
• Dutch: karikatuur (nl) f
• Finnish: irvikuva (fi)
• French: caricature (fr)
• Friulian: caricature f
• German: Karikatur (de) f, Zerrbild (de) n
• Hungarian: karikatúra (hu)
• Icelandic: skopstæling f
• Japanese: 風刺画 (ふうしが, fūshiga), 戯画 (ja) (ぎが, giga)
• Korean: 캐리커처 (ko) (kaerikeocheo), 희화 (ko) (huihwa)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: karikatur m

• Polish: karykatura (pl) f
• Portuguese: caricatura (pt) f
• Russian: карикату́ра (ru) f (karikatúra), шарж (ru) m (šarž)
• Spanish: caricatura (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Hebrew: ^{(please verify)} קריקטורה (qariqat'ura) f
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: ^{(please verify)} karîkatûr (ku)

Verb

caricature (third-person singular simple present caricatures, present participle caricaturing, simple past and past participle caricatured)

1. To represent someone in an exaggerated or distorted manner.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 180:

     Their faults grew suddenly perceptible, and their absurdities an unfailing subject of mimicry. All these, in his hands, became singularly amusing. Francesca, who had little knowledge, and no envy, of the individuals so relentlessly caricatured, could not help being entertained.

Derived terms

• caricaturist

Translations

represent in exaggerated manner

• Catalan: caricaturar (ca), caricaturitzar (ca)
• Czech: karikovat
• Danish: karikere
• Dutch: karikaturiseren (nl), vertekenen (nl)
• French: caricaturer (fr)
• German: karikieren (de)
• Hungarian: karikíroz (hu), kifiguráz (hu)
• Italian: caricaturizzare
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: karikere

• Polish: karykaturować (pl)
• Spanish: caricaturizar (es), caricaturar (es)
• Swedish: karikera (sv)

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian caricatura, from the verb caricare (“to load; to exaggerate”), cognate with French charger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.ʁi.ka.tyʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophone: caricatures
• Rhymes: -yʁ

Noun

caricature f (plural caricatures)

1. caricature

Derived terms

• caricatural
• caricaturer

 

Further reading

• “caricature”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.ri.kaˈtu.re/
• Rhymes: -ure
• Hyphenation: ca‧ri‧ca‧tù‧re

Noun

caricature f

1. plural of caricatura

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaɾikaˈtuɾe/ [ka.ɾi.kaˈt̪u.ɾe]
• Rhymes: -uɾe
• Syllabification: ca‧ri‧ca‧tu‧re

Verb

caricature

1. inflection of caricaturar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative