nonstyle

noun

nonstyle

noun

Etymology From non- + style.

1

That which is not a style; lack of style.

  • Despite the findings of recent critics, who have taken issue with the word, disputing its appropriateness to realism, this perception of the characteristic style of realism as a nonstyle has nevertheless been hard to dislodge.1995, Lilian R. Furst, All Is True: The Claims and Strategies of Realist Fiction, page 147:
  • Dada and Surrealism and other nonstyles1999, Amelia Jones, Andrew Stephenson, Performing the body/performing the text, page 144:
3 more examples
  • His nonstyle is painfully evident when he is less than inspired: the "Faust" overture: empty bombast; the Wesendonck-Lieder: empty sentimentality.2002, John Hargraves, Music in the works of Broch, Mann, and Kafka, page 52:
  • A laissez-faire style, characterized by passive indifference about the task and subordinates, is essentially a nonstyle.2008, Montgomery Van Wart, Leadership in Public Organizations: An Introduction, page 274:
  • The novel reveals its contradictory theory of representation when the narrator, describing the young Evadne's notebook, praises its style as a nonstyle[…]2012, Zarena Aslami, The Dream Life of Citizens, page 141:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.