Garish means so bright and clashing that it hurts to look at. Garish colours, a garish shirt, garish lighting.
It is always a criticism and it is about excess rather than brightness — a single bold colour is not garish and four fighting each other are. It is close to gaudy and slightly harsher. Note that the origin of the word is unknown, though a Middle English verb meaning to stare has been suggested.
1adjectivegarishSo bright and clashing that it hurts to look at.
“The hotel room was decorated with garish pink and orange wallpaper.”
garish is a quality of harsh brightness.
The origin of garish is unknown. A connection with a Middle English verb meaning to stare has been suggested.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰow-rós
Old Norse
gá — to watch, heed
Middle English
gawren — to stare
English, today
garish
Built from
unknown, possibly from obsolete Middle English gawren (“to stare”) which is of uncertain origin, probably from Old Norse gá (“to watch, heed”) or gaurr (“rough fellow”) (Proto-Indo-European gʰow-rós, from gʰew- (“to be angry”)). Compare with English gaw.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA