Etymology Borrowed from French bizarre (“odd, peculiar, bizarre”, formerly “headlong, angry”), then either from Italian bizzarro (“weird, eccentric, frisky”) or, less likely, from Basque bizar (literally “beard”, from the notion that bearded Spanish soldiers made a strange impression on the French).
1
Strangely unconventional; highly unusual and different from common experience, often in an extravagant, fantastic, and/or conspicuous way.
That was a bizarre adventure!
[…]no, the abjectly unheroic nature of the death,—that was the sting,—that and the bizarre wording of the resulting obituary: “Shot with a rock, on a raft.”1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), chapter XVII, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, pages 154–155:
4 more examples
Strange as it all was, bizarre as it may hereafter seem even to us who felt its potent influence at the time, it comforted us much; and the silence, which showed Mrs. Harker’s coming relapse from her freedom of soul, did not seem so full of despair to any of us as we had dreaded.1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:
[…] she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step.1899 (please specify the page), Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part:
I confess that I had not up to now taken a very serious view of the case, which had seemed to me rather grotesque and bizarre than dangerous.1903 December 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:
That's what we are / We all want a love bizarre1985, “A Love Bizarre”, in Romance 1600, performed by Sheila E. ft. Prince:
Etymology Borrowed from French bizarre (“odd, peculiar, bizarre”, formerly “headlong, angry”), then either from Italian bizzarro (“weird, eccentric, frisky”) or, less likely, from Basque bizar (literally “beard”, from the notion that bearded Spanish soldiers made a strange impression on the French).
Another singular feature in the tulip is, that after it breaks, it ever remains the same, and never returns to its self-color again. The show or fancy tulips are divided into three classes:— 1. Bybloemen, or violets, such as have a white ground, variegated with purple or violet, the edges well feathered, the leaflets erect, and the whole forming a perfect cup. 2. Bizarres, having a yellow ground, variegated with rose, scarlet, purple, or violet. 3. Roses, with white ground color, variegated with rosy-red, pink, or soft rose.1889 January 1, Polman Mooy, “The Tulip, Its Origin and History”, in City Document No. 76: Annual Report of the Superintendent of Common and Public Grounds, volume II, Rockwell and Churchill (city printers), published 1890, page 38: