Rabelaisian

Alternative forms

• Rabelaisan

Etymology

Calque of French rabelaisien.

Adjective

Rabelaisian (comparative more Rabelaisian, superlative most Rabelaisian)

1. Pertaining to the works or period of Rabelais.
   • 2006, Todd P. Olson, "The Street Has Its Masters: Caravaggio and the Socially Maerginal", in Genevieve Warwick (ed.), Caravaggio: Realism, Rebellion, Reception, page 72

     In Italy, as in Rabelaisian France, the carnival entered not only elite theatrical performance and engravings but also the printed word.

2. Possessing a style of satirical humour characterized by exaggerated or grotesque characters and coarse jokes.
   • 1889, William George Aston, A History of Japanese Literature, Book VI, chapter VII, page 343.

     For although of unexceptionable morality, and addressed virginibus puerisque, the stories and illustrations with which this and others of these collections abound are frequently of a very Rabelaisian character.