Other forms: mannerisms
A mannerism is a habitual gesture or turn of speech. An odd mannerism, pick up his mannerisms, distracting mannerisms.
It is what an impressionist copies, since a mannerism is the small repeated thing that identifies a person. With a capital letter it names a style of sixteenth-century painting that pushed the figures out of natural proportion.
1nounmannerismA habitual gesture or turn of speech.
“The actor caught every mannerism, down to the way he held his cup.”
mannerism is a habit.
Italian manierismo comes from maniera, manner, and was coined by Luigi Lanzi at the end of the eighteenth century for a style of painting.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)meh₂-
Latin
manuarius — belonging to the hand
Vulgar Latin
*manāria
Old French
maniere
Anglo-Norman
manere
Middle English
manere
English
manner
English, today
mannerism
Built from
From manner + -ism. manner comes from Middle English manere, maner, from Anglo-Norman manere, from Old French maniere, from Vulgar Latin manāria, from feminine of Latin manuarius (“belonging to the hand”), from manus (“hand”). Compare French manière, Italian mannaia (“ax, axe”), Portuguese maneira and maneiro (“handy, portable”), Romanian mâner (“handle”), and Spanish manera. Displaced native Old English hād (“nature, manner”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA