Definition of Gothic

Word Originfrom French gothique or late Latin gothicus, from Gothi (plural), from Greek Gothoi, from Gothic Gutthiuda ‘the Gothic people’. It was used in the 17th and 18th cents to mean ‘not classical’ (i.e. not Greek or Roman), and hence to refer to medieval architecture which did not follow classical models (sense (2)) and a typeface based on medieval handwriting (sense (4)).