Man"ner*ism (?), n. [Cf. F. mani'erisme.]
Adherence to a peculiar style or manner; a characteristic mode of action, bearing, or treatment, carried to excess, especially in literature or art.
Mannerism is pardonable,and is sometimes even agreeable, when the manner, though vicious, is natural . . . . But a mannerism which does not sit easy on the mannerist, which has been adopted on principle, and which can be sustained only by constant effort, is always offensive.
Macaulay.
© Webster 1913.