Dictionary

microportrait en · NOUN

Etymology

From micro- + portrait.

Meanings

1. An extremely small portrait.
   • He takes me into an ascetic bedroom with a large carved bed. A few of his microportraits hang on the newly painted stucco walls. 1978, Howard Wolf, Forgive the Father: A Memoir of Changing Generations, Washington, D.C.: New Republic Books, →ISBN, page 118:
2. A brief depiction of something.
   • The highly rhetorical descriptio of Philomena (ll;. 124–204) shows a courtly writer using a classical character to create a flattering microportrait of courtly society. 2001, Representing Rape in Medieval and Early Modern Literature, New York: Palgrave, →ISBN, page 162:
   • Jeremy Bernstein, Victor Lee and Aaron Feinberg run Meet Cutes NYC, which publishes microportraits of modern love on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Each video begins with Mr. Bernstein asking, "Excuse me, are you two a couple?" as the team approaches a pair of unsuspecting sweethearts with their camera. "Would you mind telling me the story of how you first met?" 2024 February 14, Stefano Montali, “Meet Cutes NYC Captures Manhattan's Love Stories”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 Feb 2024:
   • The film presents a microportrait of life deep in the Amazon jungle.

Forms