n.
A postimpressionist school of painting exemplified by Georges Seurat and his followers in late 19th-century France, characterized by the application of paint in small dots and brush strokes.
[French pointillisme, from pointiller, to paint small dots, stipple, from Old French *pointille, engraved with small dots, from point, point, from Latin pūnctum, from neuter past participle of pungere, to prick.]
pointillist poin'til·list adj. & n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
