the.com/mannerism

means A distinctive quirk of style or behavior, repeated so often it becomes a signature — in art history specifically, the 16th-century movement that prized elegant distortion over naturalistic balance.

from From Italian 'maniera,' meaning 'manner' or 'style,' which traces back to Latin 'manus' (hand) — the same root as 'manual.' Art historians later used 'mannerism' to describe painters who worked in a self-conscious 'manner' rather than straight from nature, elongating limbs and twisting poses after Michelangelo's example had already perfected the real thing. The word's everyday sense — a habitual tic of speech or gesture — grew alongside it, both senses circling the same idea: a 'way of doing' so pronounced it overtakes the thing itself.