These two words come literally from beneath the ruins of Rome…
- grotesque
- 1561, originally a noun, from M.Fr. crotesque, from It. grottesco, lit. “of a cave,” from grotta (see grotto). Used first of paintings found on the walls of basements of Roman ruins (It. pittura grottesca). Originally “fanciful, fantastic,” sense became pejorative after mid-18c. Grotty, slang shortening, had a brief vogue 1964 as part of Liverpool argot popularized by The Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night.”
- antic
- 1520s, from It. antico “antique,” from L. antiquus “old” (see antique). Originally (like grotesque) referring to the strange and fantastic representations on ancient murals unearthed around Rome, later extended to any bizarre thing or behavior, in which sense it first arrived in English.
So I guess when you hear about some politician’s “grotesque antics,” you can think of their old fancifulness.
