Vonnegut

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Relating to the works, style or satirical outlook of the American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, known for black humor and science fiction
2. Describing the darkly comic, anti-war and absurdist tone associated with the writings of the American author Kurt Vonnegut
3. Characteristic of the satirical science fiction and bleak humor found in the novels of the twentieth-century writer Kurt Vonnegut

Etymology: "Vonnegut" is not a word with a dictionary history in the usual sense. It is a surname, that of the American novelist Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007), author of "Slaughterhouse-Five." Its origin lies in German family names, where it belongs to a group of surnames formed from place or family associations rather than from any common noun. Used as a noun in English, "Vonnegut" refers to the author himself, or to his style of writing: darkly comic, fragmentary, and fond of science fiction premises. Readers and critics sometimes speak of a "Vonnegutian" tone, meaning a mix of gallows humour and moral outrage delivered in short, plainspoken sentences. Because the word is a proper name that has taken on a descriptive use, its meaning rests on his books rather than on any older root. Its sound and spelling come straight from the German surname it was given.