grotesque

Etymology

From Middle French grotesque (French grotesque), from Italian grottesco (“of a cave”), from grotta. Compare English grotto.

adj

1. Distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal, especially in a hideous way.
   Coordinate term: baroque
   A Libyan longing took us, and we would have chosen, if we could, to bear a strand of grotesque beads, or a handful of brazen gauds, and traffic them for some sable maid with crisp locks, whom, uncoffling from the captive train beside the desert, we should make to do our general housework forever, through the right of lawful purchase. 1912, The World's Wit and Humor, page 176
2. Disgusting or otherwise viscerally revolting.
3. (typography) Sans serif.

noun

1. A style of ornamentation characterized by fanciful combinations of intertwined forms.
2. Anything grotesque.
   Obese and largely unintelligible, Don Vito represents a working-class white male grotesque, the picture of excess. 2009, Emily Chivers Yochim, Skate Life, page 128
   He’s also the new character from Sacha Baron Cohen, the man behind Ali G, Borat and Brüno: that unholy trinity of comic grotesques that told us a lot more about ourselves than we’d like to admit. 23 February 2016, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ' Sacha Baron Cohen's vital, venomous action movie'”, in The Daily Telegraph (London)
3. (typography) A sans serif typeface.