James Baquet

    Mark is chatting with his classmate Ming in the common room of their dorm.

    Ming: Mark! Help me out, Bro!

    Mark: What’s wrong, buddy?

    Ming: My teacher gave us this weird assignment. She wants us to find a suffix, explain its meaning, and give examples of words that use it.

    Mark: Sounds easy enough.

    Ming: Yeah, but you know me: I never want to do things the easy way.

    Mark: So you don’t want common suffixes, like “-ed” or “-ing,” right?

    Ming: Right.

    Mark: All right. How about

    “-esque?”

    Ming: Sounds weird. I like it already! What does it mean?

    Mark: It turns a noun into an adjective.

    Ming: Oh, like “-ish,” right? England, English. Fool, foolish.

    Mark: Yes, like that. In fact, they’re kind of related. But “-esque” is more French-sounding, so it seems a little classier.

    Ming: Sorry, you told me what it does, but what does it mean exactly?

    Mark: It means something like “in the style of.”

    Ming: Give me an example.

    Mark: If you see a small village that looks, as we say, “as pretty as a picture,” we can call it —

    Ming: “Picturesque!” I know that word!

    Mark: You got it! We might also use it to comment on one person’s style by comparing it to another. A person who looks or acts like the comedian Charlie Chaplin can be called...

    Ming: I’m not sure.

    Mark: “Chaplinesque.” We also use “Kafkaesque” to describe a dark, surreal situation like those in the writings of Franz Kafka.

    Ming: Okay.

    Mark: And the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens used to paint women who were beautiful and rather plump.

    Ming: Why did he do that?

    Mark: In those days, that was considered quite beautiful. Anyway, a nice way to describe a heavy woman today is “Rubenesque.”

    Ming: I think I need to be careful with that one.

    Mark: Good idea. Here’s one you may have heard: The word “grotto” is Italian for a cave.

    Ming: Right.

    Mark: In ancient Rome, it was also used to describe the basements of old, ruined buildings.

    Ming: I can see the similarity.

    Mark: And those often featured paintings, some of which were filled with monsters and strange-looking humans and animals. So we can call these...?

    Ming: Let me think. Oh! Grotesque?

    Mark: Exactly! We now use the word to mean “gross” or “disgusting.”

    Ming: Got it. Any more words?

    Mark: Lots! But maybe a good one for you would be “Arabesque.”

    Ming: Meaning “in the style of Arabs?”

    Mark: Essentially, yes. It’s used to describe certain kinds of drawing, and even dance moves.