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Someone Is Confused Why “Gothic” Can Describe Dark Fashion Or Churches, So Tumblr Explains
Someone Is Confused Why “Gothic” Can Describe Dark Fashion Or Churches, So Tumblr Explains
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Someone Is Confused Why “Gothic” Can Describe Dark Fashion Or Churches, So Tumblr Explains

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Nowadays, when someone mentions the word ‘goth’ in a casual conversation, you probably instantly think of a black-clad, pale person with leather boots and eyes smeared in black liner. But if you’re a history nerd or architecture fan, you might have a completely different visual spring to your mind. Why is that?

Etymology documents the change in words and their meanings, together with their origins and roots. And while there are plenty of other words that history completely changed, the word ‘gothic’ had quite a fascinating journey. One Tumblr user decided to ask why that particular word meant so many different things and other people surely delivered. Scroll down below to read their explanation and tells us what you think!

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    One person asked why the word ‘gothic’ has such vastly different meanings and people came together to explain it

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    Watch this video by Dan Adams that puts the word evolution into one solid sequence

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    Giedrė Vaičiulaitytė

    Giedrė Vaičiulaitytė

    Author, Community member

    Read more »

    As a writer and image editor for Bored Panda, Giedrė crafts posts on many different topics to push them to their potential. She's also glad that her Bachelor’s degree in English Philology didn’t go to waste (although collecting dust in the attic could also be considered an achievement of aesthetic value!) Giedrė is an avid fan of cats, photography, and mysteries, and a keen observer of the Internet culture which is what she is most excited to write about. Since she's embarked on her journalistic endeavor, Giedrė has over 600 articles under her belt and hopes for twice as much (fingers crossed - half of them are about cats).

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    Giedrė Vaičiulaitytė

    Giedrė Vaičiulaitytė

    Author, Community member

    As a writer and image editor for Bored Panda, Giedrė crafts posts on many different topics to push them to their potential. She's also glad that her Bachelor’s degree in English Philology didn’t go to waste (although collecting dust in the attic could also be considered an achievement of aesthetic value!) Giedrė is an avid fan of cats, photography, and mysteries, and a keen observer of the Internet culture which is what she is most excited to write about. Since she's embarked on her journalistic endeavor, Giedrė has over 600 articles under her belt and hopes for twice as much (fingers crossed - half of them are about cats).

    What do you think ?
    Daria B
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This was informative. Thanks.

    Night Owl
    Community Member
    7 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Fascinating Edit: I liked the video too

    MonsterMash
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yaaaas...I love me some Siouxsie!

    Alexandru Bucur
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    There's even a connection of the Gothic architecture to actual Goths - the Visigothic kingdom existed around the south of France and modern day Spain until the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, which ended around 788. The moors were skilled builders and the Islamic world had already used the lancet (or pointed) arch as an architectural element in such edifices as the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, built around 705, so it imported them into buildings in Spain, including the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Around 1083, the first pointed arches attested in Christian Architecture were built at the Abbey of Cluny, in southern France. This pre-dates by 16 years the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099, which is assumed by most historians to be the spark that led to the wide adoption of Islamic architectural elements in Christian architecture, so it seems reasonable to assume that the influence was from nearby Moorish Spain, the ancient lands of the Visigoths...

    Alexandru Bucur
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Oh, I forgot to mention that Cluny Abbey was founded in 910 by none other than William I "The Pious", Duke of Aquitaine, one of the successor states of the Visigothic Kingdom, so the name "gothic architecture", could be derived directly from that.

    Load More Replies...
    Kathy Baylis
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Throw in Southern Gothic (think Faulkner) and you've got a whole different definition; decayed, debauched, sad, kinky, consumptive, melancholic, plus a host of disorders from the DSM-V (many for very good reasons)...

    Random Panda
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The explanations were so rambling and the sentences so weirdly constructed that I couldn't understand half of what they were trying to say (English is not my first language, so this block of text with weird grammar is kind of hard to decipher). I got the overall idea and I think it's interesting, but I wish they'd been more articulate and clear.

    Morgan Gerrard
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    welcome to the internet, a lawless and grammarless land of confusion

    Load More Replies...
    earringnut
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Step 1. We are the goths. Step 2. We hate the goths. Step 3. We love the goths. Step 4. We hate the folks who love the folks who love the goths.

    Miklós Nagy
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And just when you tought there is no Walpole in this story...

    Aahzmandus Pervect
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    These explanations are like mixing apples and oranges.

    Laura M D
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I have just learnt that "the goths" refers to "los godos" in Spanish. All these years... I didn't even have a clue!

    Ryo Bakura
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I thought Marilyn Manson was Last Goth Standing.

    Tom McNamara
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It's not "Sister's of Mercy" though :-P

    Molly Block
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    What is "Goth TM?" I couldn't find a definition for that.

    Honesty Olishia
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    TM is just something we gen-z-ers like to add I think

    Load More Replies...
    Keuthonymos
    Community Member
    7 years ago

    This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

    The goth kids didn't like my reply so they downvoted it. But here's another they can all understand. Either this Tumblr post is correct OR the following happened. Gather round, kids. Bram Stokers Dracula (1897) didn't show any signs of emerging the gothic subculture. Fast forward: The movie adaptation, released in 1973, had a short wait of a couple years for bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division etc. to form. Fast forward again a few years to the 80's, the bands I listed have this dark, dead looking image of dark clothes and pallor, are famous in the era and coincidentally the fans are part of this new gothic subculture that suddenly emerged. So. The goth subculture emerged from architecture style, or simply the association of a dark, FICTIONAL character living in a gothic-style building and then having some tramp trying to make a meaningful trail/association back to the visigoths of the year 5 AD instead of the 80's bands? Just behave yourselves.

    Grumble O'Pug
    Community Member
    7 years ago

    This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

    Why must she sound like a gibbering idiot. Seriously. FFS, there are things like Wikipedia, there is the library, there is Georgetown's Labyrinth, and a, well, a lot of good info. Yet she free rambles and is so proud of her loose associations and weak support. And I was a 90's goth, so get over yourself if you get offended.

    Keuthonymos
    Community Member
    7 years ago

    This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

    Don't be silly. Goths are goths because Bram Stoker's Dracula was set in gothic architecture and the goths went "OH DRAC SUNDS COL N LIVES IN DIS CASUL" and started to dress like him. People knew subculture goths were associated with Dracula, and people knew Dracula associated with gothic architecture. It's like saying how "gay" went to mean happy to homosexual because when you orgasm into an a*s you just so happen to smile. Stop trying to put meaning to a silly subculture just because you're a part of it hahahaha.

    Molly Tallmadge
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Are you ok? Do you need me to take you to the psych ward?

    Load More Replies...
    Daria B
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This was informative. Thanks.

    Night Owl
    Community Member
    7 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Fascinating Edit: I liked the video too

    MonsterMash
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yaaaas...I love me some Siouxsie!

    Alexandru Bucur
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    There's even a connection of the Gothic architecture to actual Goths - the Visigothic kingdom existed around the south of France and modern day Spain until the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, which ended around 788. The moors were skilled builders and the Islamic world had already used the lancet (or pointed) arch as an architectural element in such edifices as the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, built around 705, so it imported them into buildings in Spain, including the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Around 1083, the first pointed arches attested in Christian Architecture were built at the Abbey of Cluny, in southern France. This pre-dates by 16 years the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099, which is assumed by most historians to be the spark that led to the wide adoption of Islamic architectural elements in Christian architecture, so it seems reasonable to assume that the influence was from nearby Moorish Spain, the ancient lands of the Visigoths...

    Alexandru Bucur
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Oh, I forgot to mention that Cluny Abbey was founded in 910 by none other than William I "The Pious", Duke of Aquitaine, one of the successor states of the Visigothic Kingdom, so the name "gothic architecture", could be derived directly from that.

    Load More Replies...
    Kathy Baylis
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Throw in Southern Gothic (think Faulkner) and you've got a whole different definition; decayed, debauched, sad, kinky, consumptive, melancholic, plus a host of disorders from the DSM-V (many for very good reasons)...

    Random Panda
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The explanations were so rambling and the sentences so weirdly constructed that I couldn't understand half of what they were trying to say (English is not my first language, so this block of text with weird grammar is kind of hard to decipher). I got the overall idea and I think it's interesting, but I wish they'd been more articulate and clear.

    Morgan Gerrard
    Community Member
    6 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    welcome to the internet, a lawless and grammarless land of confusion

    Load More Replies...
    earringnut
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Step 1. We are the goths. Step 2. We hate the goths. Step 3. We love the goths. Step 4. We hate the folks who love the folks who love the goths.

    Miklós Nagy
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And just when you tought there is no Walpole in this story...

    Aahzmandus Pervect
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    These explanations are like mixing apples and oranges.

    Laura M D
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I have just learnt that "the goths" refers to "los godos" in Spanish. All these years... I didn't even have a clue!

    Ryo Bakura
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I thought Marilyn Manson was Last Goth Standing.

    Tom McNamara
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It's not "Sister's of Mercy" though :-P

    Molly Block
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    What is "Goth TM?" I couldn't find a definition for that.

    Honesty Olishia
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    TM is just something we gen-z-ers like to add I think

    Load More Replies...
    Keuthonymos
    Community Member
    7 years ago

    This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

    The goth kids didn't like my reply so they downvoted it. But here's another they can all understand. Either this Tumblr post is correct OR the following happened. Gather round, kids. Bram Stokers Dracula (1897) didn't show any signs of emerging the gothic subculture. Fast forward: The movie adaptation, released in 1973, had a short wait of a couple years for bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division etc. to form. Fast forward again a few years to the 80's, the bands I listed have this dark, dead looking image of dark clothes and pallor, are famous in the era and coincidentally the fans are part of this new gothic subculture that suddenly emerged. So. The goth subculture emerged from architecture style, or simply the association of a dark, FICTIONAL character living in a gothic-style building and then having some tramp trying to make a meaningful trail/association back to the visigoths of the year 5 AD instead of the 80's bands? Just behave yourselves.

    Grumble O'Pug
    Community Member
    7 years ago

    This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

    Why must she sound like a gibbering idiot. Seriously. FFS, there are things like Wikipedia, there is the library, there is Georgetown's Labyrinth, and a, well, a lot of good info. Yet she free rambles and is so proud of her loose associations and weak support. And I was a 90's goth, so get over yourself if you get offended.

    Keuthonymos
    Community Member
    7 years ago

    This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

    Don't be silly. Goths are goths because Bram Stoker's Dracula was set in gothic architecture and the goths went "OH DRAC SUNDS COL N LIVES IN DIS CASUL" and started to dress like him. People knew subculture goths were associated with Dracula, and people knew Dracula associated with gothic architecture. It's like saying how "gay" went to mean happy to homosexual because when you orgasm into an a*s you just so happen to smile. Stop trying to put meaning to a silly subculture just because you're a part of it hahahaha.

    Molly Tallmadge
    Community Member
    7 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Are you ok? Do you need me to take you to the psych ward?

    Load More Replies...
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