fin-de-siècle
Era's elegant exhaustion
Fin-de-siècle is French for "end of the century," used in English to evoke the cultural atmosphere of the 1890s—a period of artistic decadence, world-weariness, and sophisticated pessimism before the upheavals of the twentieth century.
The term typically modifies nouns: fin-de-siècle aesthetics, fin-de-siècle Vienna.
It suggests both cultural refinement and a sense of exhaustion or decline.
Valuing beauty above ethics
- decadentSelf-indulgent, often corruptly
- hedonismPursuit of gratification
- opulenceShowy, abundant prosperity
- sensualityPursuit of physical pleasure
excess · indulgence · dissipation · debauchery · corruption · degeneration · vice · languor
Melancholy at existence itself
- spleenBlood-filtering abdominal organ
- ennuiWeary, listless dissatisfaction
- malaiseDiffuse, sourceless discomfort
- world-wearinessJaded disillusionment with life
pessimism · fatalism · tristesse · languor · wistfulness · brooding · anomie · despondency
Of earlier times
- reminiscenceRecalling past experiences
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- retrospectionContemplating past events
sentimentality · halcyon · reverie · wistfulness · gaslight · Victorian · Edwardian · elegance
Art emphasizing ideas over reality
- ImpressionismArt movement emphasizing light
- Post-ImpressionismMovement following Impressionism
- KlimtAustrian symbolist painter
- Toulouse-LautrecFin-de-siècle lithographer
Time near 1900 or 2000
- epochDistinct historical period
- thresholdPoint of beginning
- cuspPoint of transition
- interregnumRulership gap period
flux · metamorphosis · upheaval · modernity · industrialization · urbanization · secularization · liminality
aestheticism
Valuing beauty above ethics
- decadentSelf-indulgent, often corruptly
- hedonismPursuit of gratification
- opulenceShowy, abundant prosperity
sensuality · excess · indulgence · dissipation · debauchery · corruption · degeneration · vice · languor · absinthe
weltschmerz
Melancholy at existence itself
- spleenBlood-filtering abdominal organ
- ennuiWeary, listless dissatisfaction
- malaiseDiffuse, sourceless discomfort
world-weariness · pessimism · fatalism · tristesse · languor · wistfulness · brooding · anomie · despondency · gloom
bygone
Of earlier times
- reminiscenceRecalling past experiences
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
- longingIntense, persistent desire
retrospection · sentimentality · halcyon · reverie · wistfulness · gaslight · Victorian · Edwardian · elegance · gilded
Symbolism
Art emphasizing ideas over reality
- ImpressionismArt movement emphasizing light
- Post-ImpressionismMovement following Impressionism
- KlimtAustrian symbolist painter
Toulouse-Lautrec · Salome · Tiffany · ornament · arabesque · sinuous
turn-of-the-century
Time near 1900 or 2000
interregnum · flux · metamorphosis · upheaval · modernity · industrialization · urbanization · secularization · liminality · zeitgeist
fin-de-siècleoptimism
Tendency to expect good
vitality · renaissance · vigor · dynamism · progressive
fin-de-siècleEdwardian
Of early twentieth-century Britain
Futurism · Roaring Twenties · modernism · Industrial Revolution
fine, finest, refined, refine, unrefined, finer, fines, refinement, refinery