Havishamesque
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌhævɪʃəmˈɛsk/
rhymes: -ɛsk
Forms: form: more Havishamesque
form: most Havishamesque
form: Havisham-esque
Etymology: From Havisham + -esque (suffix meaning ‘in the style or manner of’ forming adjectives), after the character Miss Havisham from the novel Great Expectations (1860–1861) by the English author Charles Dickens (1812–1870), a wealthy spinster once jilted at the altar, who lives in a ruined mansion and always wears her wedding dress.
Senses: examples: text: Unlike most historic sites, which tend to ossify into Havishamesque stillness, Chesterwood, the turn-of-the-century home of popular academic sculptor Daniel Chester French, welcomes the fresh breezes of life.
ref: 1987 October, Julie Michaels, Susan Zesiger, “Guaranteed Listings”, in Daniel Okrent, editor, New England Monthly, volume 4, number 10, Haydenville, Mass.: New England Monthly, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 97, column 2:
text: Iris went away to boil water or something, and Claire had time to investigate the shabby finery of the room. It was sad if you looked at it one way, almost Havishamesque.
ref: 1990, Mary Ann Kelly, chapter 11, in Park Lane South, Queens (A Thomas Dunne Book), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 177:
text: In vitrines throughout the house are several of the couple's collections—Dick [Cavett]'s Native American artifacts, Carrie [Nye]'s seashells, and one Havishamesque glass-topped table preserving a robin's nest with eggs, her ballet teacher's toe shoes, her grandmother's silk wedding slippers, and a copy of [Rudyard] Kipling's Recessional that belonged to Tennessee Williams's mother and was inscribed by him to Carrie.
ref: 1994 July, Martin Filler, “Shingle Stylish”, in Louis Oliver Gropp, editor, House Beautiful, volume 136, number 7, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 103, column 2:
text: Her husband died three years into their nuptials and she has sat ever since, sour and Havishamesque, waiting on that porch. Waiting for what I do not know: for his return from the great beyond, I suppose, or perhaps for her own demise, and their ensuing reunion.
ref: 2012, Matthew Crow, My Dearest Jonah, large print edition, Anstey, Leicestershire: Ulverscroft, F. A. Thorpe (Publishing), published 2014, →ISBN, pages 90–91:
text: When she told me she hadn't seen it [the film Grey Gardens (1975)], I launched into an enthusiastic gush about this legendary seventies Maysles brothers documentary about a mother and daughter who lived in Havisham-esque decay in East Hampton.
ref: 2013, Simon Doonan, “Lipstick on Your Kneecaps”, in The Asylum: A Collage of Couture Reminiscences … and Hysteria, New York, N.Y.: Blue Rider Press, Penguin Group, →ISBN:
text: On some level Chris felt sorry for abandoning Arthur; however, in Chris's mind, that still didn't justify the dramatics of it all—the maudlin, Havishamesque world he'd been dragged into because of a single mistake.
ref: 2018, Cory Ingram, chapter 7, in Paradise, [Calgary, Alta.]: Ganymede Press, →ISBN, pages 86–87:
synonyms: word: fossilized
word: Miss Havishamesque
word: anachronistic
word: antediluvial
word: antediluvian
word: antiquated
word: antique
word: archaic
word: backward
word: backwards
word: behind the times
word: cobwebbed
word: cobwebby
word: dated
word: defunct
word: discontinued
word: disused
word: dootsie
word: elderly
word: extinct
word: expired
word: fossilized
word: Havishamesque
word: idle
word: Miss Havishamesque
word: obsolete
word: old
word: oldfangled
word: old-fashioned
word: old school
word: outdated
word: outmoded
word: out of date
word: out of fashion
word: outworn
word: parachronistic
word: passé
word: superannuated
word: superseded
word: unemployed
word: unoccupied
word: venerable
word: workless
glosses: Stuck in the past; also, refusing to accept change or failure.
wikipedia: Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
Harry Furniss
Miss Havisham