Tuesday, November 9, 2010

What is "whimsy"? send in your answers:

a Whimsical Wednesday pre-post!

Ok, I got a great question today from Gumnut (click to check out her art).

So, whimsical wizards of the blogoshpere:
"What exactly makes a piece whimsey?"

First off - you might have noticed the two spellings above: "whimsy" and "whimsey" - see how fun this is already, two spellings (both acceptable).

The New Oxford American Dictionary definition:
whimsy |ˈ(h)wimzē| (also whimsey)
noun ( pl. -sies or -seys)
playfully quaint or fanciful behavior or humor : the film is an awkward blend of whimsy and moralizing.
• a whim.
• a thing that is fanciful or odd : the stone carvings and whimsies.
ORIGIN early 17th cent. (in the sense [caprice] ): probably based on whim-wham .:

whimsical |ˈ(h)wimzikəl|
adjective
1 playfully quaint or fanciful, esp. in an appealing and amusing way : a whimsical sense of humor.
2 acting or behaving in a capricious manner : the whimsical arbitrariness of autocracy.
DERIVATIVES
whimsicality |ˌ(h)wimziˈkalitē| noun
whimsically |-ik(ə)lē| adverb

WHAT DO YOU SAY? Leave your definition/answer as a comment below and I will collect them and post them with links to your illos next week!

Thanks for playing.

7 comments:

skye jethani said...

What is whimsy? How about this:
http://www.whitehat.com.au/images/People/LaTrobe1.jpg

Juniper said...

It's a good question and one which I asked myself when I came to look at your Whimsical Wednesday posts. I'm still not quite sure ;-)

Fanciful sounds like it is something invented or made up - Edward Lear springs to mind.

Virginia said...

I think of whimsy as fun and light-hearted. Whenever I try to draw something scary it always comes out whimsical. I guess I'm not the scary type.

Julie said...

How about charming, delightful,carefree, uplifting, airy, pretty, sweet.

Sandy Coleman said...

Whimsy is just fun, free and flowing--no agenda other than joy.

Unknown said...

hmmmmmmm......

I'm not sure if you would but this under whimsical or absurd.

I choose whimsical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqhlQfXUk7w

Kay Day said...

Because of the phrase "on a whim" I think that maybe it can't be planned.
Whimsey just happens and it's delightful when it does.

Although, I'm sure this is just one type of whimsy. (see, I like both spellings, too.) One couldn't make a whimsical movie without some kind of intention.

I wonder. Can I intentionally be whimsical?
Seems like I can't help it most of the time.