Dictionary

normcore en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈnɔɹmˌkoɹ/ (General-American)
• /ˈnɔːmkɔː/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From norm(al) (“according to norms or rules or to a regular pattern”) + -core (suffix denoting genres of music and subcultures (often specialized and underground)), coined by the cartoonist Ryan Estrada in a guest comic strip for the webcomic Templar, Arizona on 17 September 2008: see the quotation. It was popularized in a stylized, tongue-in-cheek trend report produced by the collective K-HOLE in 2013.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A unisex fashion trend characterized by average-looking, unpretentious clothing.
   • Clémence would say that his style was normcore before normcore became a thing. She had to admit that she still found him attractive. 2014, Harper Lin, chapter 3, in Croissant Murder (A Patisserie Mystery with Recipes; book 5), Kingston, Ont.: Harper Lin Books, →ISBN:
   • That means he's normcore. Dangerously regular. Dresses only in T-shirts an' jeans, uses slang appropriated from other sub cultures, but only 3 years after it's^([sic – meaning its]) first use, an' only after it's been used in a sitcom. [2008 September 17, Ryan Estrada, “Ryan Estrada Day: Templar, Arizona”, in Templar, Arizona, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2015:
   • Normcore is gray sweatpants pretending to be trousers. Normcore is a seen-better-days faun-colored golf knit. Normcore is an unlogo'd sneaker. Normcore is the opposite of wearing a pair of white patent-leather bejeweled Versace assless chaps. Normcore is oblivious to Givenchy shaved-beaver man purses. Normcore knows nothing of fluorescent-studded Louboutin sneakers. 2014 April 7, Simon Doonan, “Beware of Normcore”, in Slate, New York, N.Y.: The Slate Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Aug 2022:
   • Another part of her gift is that she's damn funny. Even if she'd come from the heart of normcore, her tale would be worth telling and well told. But she was raised in Crazytown, and the more foreign her territory, the more delightful—and somehow more relatable—her tale becomes. 2015 August, Joss Whedon, “Foreword”, in Felicia Day, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost): A Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page x:
2. (attributive, broadly, uncountable) Any style that is mainstream or unremarkable.
   • "That's normcore painting, and that's what people are buying and trading now," [Deborah] Kass said, along with some slightly more colorful critique she opted to keep off the record. 2015 December 9, Alexandria Symonds, “Art as social critique — with a little help from The Rolling Stones and Katy Perry”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jun 2022:

Deriveds

lunarcore · Naarmcore · gorpcore

Relateds

normal

Translations (8)

ja ノームコア (unisex fashion trend characterized by average-looking, unpretentious clothing) · uk нормкор (unisex fashion trend characterized by average-looking, unpretentious clothing) · fi normityyli (unisex fashion trend characterized by average-looking, unpretentious clothing) · fi normi- (any style that is mainstream or unremarkable) · fi normcore (unisex fashion trend characterized by average-looking, unpretentious clothing) · ru нормко́р (unisex fashion trend characterized by average-looking, unpretentious clothing) · fr normcore (unisex fashion trend characterized by average-looking, unpretentious clothing) · fi tavis- (any style that is mainstream or unremarkable)

wikipedia: Templar, Arizona · wikipedia: American Dialect Society · wikipedia: American Speech · wikipedia: Duke University Press · wikipedia: The Eyeopener · wikipedia: Toronto Metropolitan University · wikipedia: K-HOLE (trend forecasting group)