Picaresque

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /pɪkəˈɹɛsk/

Definitions

1. a literary style depicting the adventures of a roguish protagonist navigating society through cunning and survival
2. a narrative genre featuring a morally ambiguous rogue whose episodic misadventures reveal social hypocrisy and corruption
3. a fictional mode centered on a clever scoundrel whose picaros pursuits expose the flaws and injustices of the world around them

Etymology: The word "picaresque" rests on a Spanish rogue. In Spain, a "pícaro" was a roguish, low-born wanderer who survived by wit and trickery, and the Spanish tradition of novels about such characters gave the English term its shape. The adjective is built from "picaro," meaning "adventurer" or "rogue," plus the suffix "-esque," which means "in the style or manner of." Borrowed Spanish, "picaresco," meaning "in the style of a picaro," supplied the model, so English adopted a ready-made formation rather than inventing one from scratch. The term describes a kind of story rather than a quality of character: episodic narratives following a clever, disreputable protagonist through a series of adventures. The English adjective is documented in the Oxford English Dictionary, which also notes that the French form "picaresque" appears in print later than the English one, so English was not simply following French usage.

Synonyms: roguish, mischievous, unconventional

Antonyms: heroic, virtuous