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fau·vism

(fōvĭz′əm)

An early 20th-century movement in painting begun by a group of French artists and marked by the use of bold, often distorted forms and vivid colors.

[French fauvisme, from fauve, wild animal, from fauve, wild, reddish-yellow, from Old French falve, reddish-yellow, from Frankish *falw-; see pel-¹ in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

fauvist adj.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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