cubism

The story

1. Ancient Greek · derived fromκύβος
2. Latin · derived fromcubus
3. French · borrowed fromcubisme
4. English todaycubism

From French cubisme. One story is that, in 1908, as a new canvas by Braque was being carried past, someone said, “Encore des cubes! assez de cubisme!”. The quotations below ascribe the coinage to Matisse. Sometimes attributed to French art critic Louis Vauxcelles who popularized the term. See also the word cube (from Latin cubus, from Ancient Greek κύβος (kúbos)).

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 1900s An artistic movement in the early 20th Century characterized by the depiction of natural forms as geometric structures of planes.