Dickensian

English
WOTD – 7 February 2022
A c. 1860s photographic portrait by Augustin Rischgitz of the English author Charles Dickens.

Etymology

From Dickens (the surname of Charles Dickens (1812–1870)) +‎ -ian (suffix forming adjectives or nouns meaning ‘belonging to, relating to, or like’).[1]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /dɪˈkɛn.zɪ.ən/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /dəˈkɛn.zi.ən/
  • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Hyphenation: Dick‧ens‧i‧an

Adjective

Dickensian (comparative more Dickensian, superlative most Dickensian)

  1. Of, pertaining to, or created by the English author Charles Dickens.
  2. Similar to Dickens' writing style, especially in commenting on society, or in using emotion, humour, or rich descriptions.
    Synonyms: Dickenesque, Dickensesque, Dickensish, Dickens-like, Dickensy
    a Dickensian name
  3. Reminiscent of the environments and situations most commonly portrayed in Dickens' writings, such as poverty, social injustice, and other aspects of Victorian England.
    Synonyms: Dickenesque, Dickensesque, Dickensish, Dickens-like, Dickensy
    • 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 704:
      At last the first glimpse from a bridge of an open-top red bus, and a noticeable darkening of the atmosphere from the smoke of London: then the increasingly dingy stations with double-barrel names, set amid what has always been to me the outstanding feature of the "Premier Line" approach to London—the positively marvellous display of crazy chimney-pots on the grey inner suburban houses. As many as twenty, all of varying style, standing together like ranks of jagged teeth, and providing a Dickensian back-cloth which no other route can boast.
    • 1988, Cecil D. Eby, “Playing the Game”, in The Road to Armageddon: The Martial Spirit in English Popular Literature 1870–1914, Durham, N.C., London: Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 89:
      As though in expiation of their sires' wealth, schoolboys often had to live in conditions that would have disgraced a Dickensian workhouse.
    • 1993, William Sloane Coffin, “A Vision of the Future”, in A Passion for the Possible: A Message to U.S. Churches, Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, →ISBN, page 10:
      As earlier implied, the planet is threatened on three major fronts: […] (3) by a Dickensian world of wretched excess and wretched despair.
    • 2001 February, Tim Moore, “Prologue”, in Frost on My Moustache: The Arctic Exploits of a Lord and a Loafer, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Griffin, St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 2:
      Down in the subway under the roundabout the looming social ordeal started to weigh down on me, […] By the time I pressed a huge and over-polished brass bell I'd devolved into a shifty-eyed, cinder-cheeked Dickensian urchin, and when the door opened I half expected to see Mrs Bridges throw up her fat, floury hands and scream for the cook's boy.
    • 2008 September 15, Alan Wheatley, “China getting higher marks for tackling piracy”, in Reuters‎, archived from the original on 23 April 2010:
      Leaning against piracy fits in with China's desire to cast off its image of a country where exploited workers toil for a pittance in Dickensian factories that turn the air and water black with the pollution they discharge.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

Dickensian (plural Dickensians)

  1. A person who admires or studies the works of Charles Dickens.
    Synonym: (archaic) Dickensite

Translations

References
  1. “Dickensian, adj. and n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2019; “Dickensian, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading
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