bizarre

(bĭ-zär')
adj.
Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd. See synonyms at fantastic.

[French, from Spanish bizarro, brave, probably from Basque bizar, beard.]

bizarrely bi·zarre'ly adv.
bizarreness bi·zarre'ness n.

View more Entertainment & Arts videos

adjective

1. Deviating from the customary: cranky, curious, eccentric, erratic, freakish, idiosyncratic, odd, outlandish, peculiar, quaint, queer, quirky, singular, strange, unnatural, unusual, weird. Slang kooky, screwball. British Slang rum, rummy. See usual/unusual.
2. Conceived or done with no reference to reality or common sense: antic, fantastic, fantastical, far-fetched, grotesque. See true/false, usual/unusual.

adj

Definition: strange, wild
Antonyms: normal, reasonable, usual

from Basque
This word originated in Spain

Can a beard be bizarre? Of course. Can a bizarre beard be Basque? How bizarre! There is no question that the Basque language, spoken on the border between Spain and France, from which so many English words have come, has a word bizarra that means beard. There is no question, furthermore, that bizarro means "handsome" or "brave" in Spanish and Portuguese.

Furthermore, coming at it from the present day, there is no question that we got our bizarre directly from the French, in about 1648. And there is no question that the French were the ones who took bizarre meaning "brave" or "warlike" and twisted it to our present-day meaning of "strange, weird, grotesque."

But what happened in between? Did a Spaniard, observing a fierce bearded Basque, hear the word bizarra and by misunderstanding give it a new meaning? Did the French then borrow this "brave" bizarre from the Spanish? So could it be that bizarre comes from the Basque word for beard?

The experts aren't sure, but then the experts aren't sure of a lot of things about the Basque language. It has a bizarre history. It seems completely unrelated to other European languages, or indeed to any other languages at all, although efforts have been made to link it with languages of the Caucasus, the Americas, and Pakistan.

Basque is spoken by more than 600,000 people in the northeast of Spain, where it is recognized as an official regional language, and by 90,000 across the border in France, as well as some 8,000 in the United States.

Via Spanish, Basque has also given the English-speaking world what is said to be the world's fastest game. In Basque, jai means "festival" and alai means "happy." The game of jai alai, which involves flinging a hard rubber ball against a wall at high speed, is thus a "happy festival." It is a popular spectator sport in Florida and Latin America.

Yet another likely Basque word in English is chaparral (1842), the term for dense brush in the American Southwest. We know this word comes to us directly from Spanish, but Spanish may well have obtained it from Basque.

---

IN BRIEF: In a manner that is odd; fantastic or involving marked incongruities.

He was behaving bizarrely after the accident. — http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/howard-behaving-bizarrely/2007/05/23/1179601450071.html

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

For a list of words related to bizarre, see:

• Vulgar, Rude, Degenerate, or Wild
• Agitation, Abnormality, and Instability - bizarre: (adj) odd, extravagant, or eccentric in behavior

---

See words rhyming with "bizarre."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Bizarre.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - bizar, besynderlig, sælsom

Nederlands (Dutch)
bizar, grillig

Français (French)
adj. - bizarre

Deutsch (German)
adj. - bizarr, absonderlich, grotesk

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - αλλόκοτος, παράξενος, εκκεντρικός, αλλοπρόσαλλος

Italiano (Italian)
bizzarro, strano

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - grotesco, estranho, bizarro

Русский (Russian)
странный, эксцентричный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - extraño, curioso, estrafalario

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - bisarr

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
奇异的, 异乎寻常的, 极不协调的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 奇異的, 異乎尋常的, 極不協調的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 별난, 색다른, 예기치 못한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 奇妙な, 奇怪な

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) غريب, شاذ‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מוזר, משונה‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.