pixilated · /ˈpɪksɪleɪtɪd/ · /PIK-sə-LAY-təd/. adjective. Whimsical, impish, mischievous. Intoxicated, deranged. In the 20th century, distorted by visible or enlarged pixels. From pixie + -lated (as in titillated, stimulated, elated). ¶ Popularized in the 1936 Frank Capra movie Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, in which a psychiatrist testifies, “Perhaps I can explain, Your Honor. The word pixilated is an early American expression, derived from the word ‘pixies,’ meaning elves. They would say, ‘The pixies had got him,’ as we nowadays would say a man is ‘balmy.’”
“…my tyrannical inclinations, my love
for the prodigal jocks aging from prime time
to pastime, the pixilated, plain people and colored folkwith homemade signs…”
(Terrance Hayes)“Dr. Glibbery galumphed, and pixilated Miss Pouce still pleaded from her library for patronage.” (Alexander Theroux)
“They bent over, unaware, the saucy darlings, of the fatal strips of white cotton knickers thus displayed, the undercurves of baby-fat little buttocks a blow to the Genital Brain, however pixilated.” (Thomas Pynchon)
“Unlike the heavily pixilated art in Small Worlds, Machinariums visuals are hand-drawn…” (Bryan Alexander)
“Stories abound of pixilated Irishmen who, out of fear, spent the remainder of their lives on horseback.” (Tom Robbins)
“He was pixilated all right,” Jo said, “but he didn’t imagine it. Don drove up to the lake on Monday, after I told him about it, and her body was there, just like Tony said.” (Ross Macdonald)
“As much as she cast her younger self as pixilated by the attention of the Pathe cameraman, as a woman she dreaded his kind.” (Brad Gooch)
“I was half belligerent, and half pixilated with my own limitless abilities.” (Harlan Ellison)