Baroque [was Re: Should nested classes in an Enum be Enum members?]

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 30 Jun 2018 09:02:37 +1000, Cameron Simpson wrote:

> On 29Jun2018 10:36, Ethan Furman <ethan at stoneleaf.us> wrote:
>>On 06/28/2018 10:52 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:

>>>It isn't clear to me why FederalHoliday is an Enum, especially as the
>>>API seems extremely baraque.
>>
>>Huh.  I had to look that word up, and I still don't know what you meant
>>exactly, although I suspect it wasn't complimentary.  ;-)
>
> It tends to mean "weird", but perhaps a more nuanced phrasing might be
> unusual and strange, and usually connotes some degree of over
> complication.

It might have helped if I spelled it correctly, sorry.

It should not mean "weird or bizarre", although I've seen a couple of 
lesser-quality dictionaries give that as a meaning. Which is itself weird 
and bizarre :-)

The more established meanings are:

- literally, it refers to the Baroque style of art, music and
  architecture popular in Europe between (approximately) 1600 and 1750;

- figuratively, it means to be highly ornate and elaborate, with strong
  connotations of being *excessively* complicated to the point of being
  convoluted.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/baroque

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/baroque

So not especially complimentary (sorry Ethan, but that was my first 
impression) but not *necessarily* a bad thing either.

The Jargon File adjective that comes closest is probably gnarly:

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/G/gnarly.html

but that's probably stronger with even worse connotations than baroque.


-- 
Steven D'Aprano
"Ever since I learned about confirmation bias, I've been seeing
it everywhere." -- Jon Ronson