arabesque
1
9.1
- noun
- /ˌærəˈbɛsk/
:
arabesco
- Irene's brow has become a tracery of arabesques.
- form of arabesque
Examples
-
One caught his eye, a small silver key with elaborate arabesques around its haft.
Fiction book (1991) -
Across multiple images, we see these same props recur time and time again: a radio shifts hands, various men sport the same pair of glasses, and the sitters are all placed before a small selection of patterned curtains that repeat their arabesque motifs endlessly across time and space.
Academic text (2010) -
Are not his dodging tactics a form of the arabesque?
Academic text (2010) -
The daring corvette, play of the arabesque in the peacock's eye.
Fiction book (1999) -
And so one arrives at the sinuous, questing meander of the arabesque.
Academic text (2010) -
Six drawings of arabesques by Watteau and four entries by Fragonard were also featured.
Academic text (1993) -
She was lying on her tummy, white socks waggling in the air as her finger traced a complicated journey along the arabesques of the carpet.
Fiction book (1997) -
I was late and was footing it through a labyrinth of chipped tiled corridors and worn arabesque carpets.
Academic text (2010) -
A relevant category of Batiments payments during these years was to landscape, architecture, animal, flower, and arabesque specialists, most of whom had long supplied their luxuriantly decorative but ideologically subsidiary wares for royal interiors.
Academic text (1996) -
The vase was beautifully decorated with intricate arabesques that showcased its exquisite craftsmanship.
Synonyms
192
2.8
A repeated design like shapes or flowers on cloth
17
5.3
A repeated decorative design used on clothes, walls or buildings
A decorative pattern of woven bands used in borders
A decorative object in the Moorish style with detailed geometric patterns
How Elaborate
Surface Forms
Morphology
arabesque = Arab (transparent) = arab + esque
The components 'Arab' + the productive English suffix '-esque' ('in the style of') clearly yield 'in the Arabic/Arab-like style' as applied to decorative design.
Etymology
Arabesque comes from words meaning 'in the Arabic style', made from Arab and the ending -esque meaning 'in the style of', and it was first used for the flowing, interlaced patterns in Islamic art. So an arabesque is a decorative design of curving lines and stylized leaves, which is why the word now means that kind of ornament.