Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A European artistic and literary movement (1916–1923) that flouted conventional aesthetic and cultural values by producing works marked by nonsense, travesty, and incongruity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1920. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature (mainly poetry), theatre, and graphic design, and was characterized by nihilism, deliberate irrationality, disillusionment, cynicism, chance, randomness, and the rejection of the prevailing standards in art.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a nihilistic art movement (especially in painting) that flourished in Europe early in the 20th century; based on irrationality and negation of the accepted laws of beauty
  • noun an informal term for a father; probably derived from baby talk

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French dada, hobbyhorse, Dada, of baby-talk origin.]

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