rocambolesque

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French rocambolesque, in reference to Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail's character Rocambole.

Adjective

rocambolesque (comparative more rocambolesque, superlative most rocambolesque)

1. Fantastic, incredible, fabulous.

   a rocambolesque story

   • 2001, Chapter 14: Structure, Contingency, and Choice, Joan Wallach Scott, Debra Keates (editors), Schools of Thought: Twenty-five Years of Interpretive Social Science, Princeton University Press, page 267,

     Behind much of this were particular concrete New Left movements, some serious, some more rocambolesque.

   • 2004, Christopher Wood, Sincere Male Seeks Love and Someone to Wash His Underpants, Twenty First Century Publishers, page 18,

     Though not exactly seeking carpet slippers and the reassuring click of knitting needles he had envisaged a future rather less rocambolesque than the plot of the average Tarantino movie.

   • 2017, Matteo Salvadore, The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402—1555, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 121,

     The latter in particular was an unlikely candidate for what would turn out to be the most rocambolesque experiences in the entire history of the encounter.

Translations

fantastic

• Catalan: rocambolesc (ca)
• French: rocambolesque (fr)
• Italian: rocambolesco (it)
• Spanish: rocambolesco (es)

French

Etymology

From Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail's character Rocambole + -esque.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɔ.kɑ̃.bɔ.lɛsk/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

rocambolesque (plural rocambolesques)

1. fantastic, unusual, incredible, wacky

   Synonyms: incroyable, inimaginable, inouï, invraisemblable

Descendants

• → English: rocambolesque
• → Italian: rocambolesco
• → Spanish: rocambolesco

Further reading

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