Kitsch
/kɪtʃ/noun
Art, objects, or style considered to be in poor taste because they are overly sentimental or gaudy.
Did you know?The word is usually traced to German art-market slang in the 1860s–1870s, possibly linked to a Bavarian dialect verb meaning to smear or make something cheap-looking, which is why it began as a judgment about fake, mass-made taste.
Etymological Timeline
1860s–1870s
German
Kitsch
“Cheap, shoddy art or sentimental mass-produced taste”
19th Century
German dialect
kitschen
“To smear, daub, or make something cheaply or sloppily”
19th Century
Yiddish/German urban slang
Kitsch
“Inferior, low-grade artistic or decorative stuff”
Early 20th Century
English
kitsch
“Bad-taste, mass-produced art or objects”
Modern English
English
kitsch
“Art, style, or objects judged to be gaudy, sentimental, or in poor taste”