Baroque
Etymology
From Portuguese "barroco," a jeweler’s term for an irregular, misshapen pearl, borrowed into French as "baroque." First hurled as an insult at 17th-century art thought grotesquely overdecorated, it later became the neutral name for that whole era of European style.
adjective · /buh-ROHK/
Extravagantly ornate, elaborate, and full of dramatic detail.
What it names
Handy for describing anything overwrought with ornament — a ceiling, a sentence, a bureaucratic process.
Example
The contract had grown so baroque that even the lawyers needed a summary.
Related idea
Baroque piles on ornament with grandeur and drama; rococo is its lighter, frillier successor — playful pastel excess rather than heavy magnificence.
adjective · /buh-ROHK/
Of or relating to the Baroque — the dramatic, ornate style that dominated European art, architecture, and music from roughly 1600 to 1750.
What it names
The specific historical period and style, not just the general quality of being ornate.
Example
Bach’s fugues and Bernini’s sculptures are landmarks of the Baroque.
Related idea
Tenebrism, with its stark shadow and concentrated light, is a signature device of Baroque painting.