Nabokovism

Nabokovism noun: an attitude or turn of phrase characteristic of the Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977).

Noun

Nabokovism (countable and uncountable, plural Nabokovisms)

An attitude or turn of phrase characteristic of the Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977).
- They are rather little signs to suggest how one might proceed up a road on which I did not do very well myself, the road to pure Nabokovism.1966, Maurice Schneps, Alvin D. Coox, The Japanese image, Volume 1
- We both said, well then, let's put together some of the Nabokovisms we've been guffawing ecstatically over behind our hand on this magical white night.1974, Carl R. Proffer, A Book of Things about Vladimir Nabokov

[…] Nabokovisms, such as his description of cheerful Soviet propaganda as 'this pail of milk of human kindness with a dead rat at the bottom'.1979, The Spectator (volume 243, part 2)
[…] an irresponsible and profligate imitator (like many of the forty long-listed authors, who seem to be victims of the current epidemics of Nabokovism […]1996, Natasha Perova, Captives and latest Booker winners:

plural	Nabokovisms

From Nabokov + -ism.

What does Nabokovism mean?: Nabokovism means an attitude or turn of phrase characteristic of the Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977).
How do you use Nabokovism in a sentence?: […] Nabokovisms, such as his description of cheerful Soviet propaganda as 'this pail of milk of human kindness with a dead rat at the bottom'.
What part of speech is Nabokovism?: Nabokovism is a noun.
What is the plural of Nabokovism?: The plural of Nabokovism is Nabokovisms.

Adapted from Wiktionary: Nabokovism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “Nabokovism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nabokovism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.