arabesquen.adj.
/ˌarəˈbɛsk/, U.S. /ˌɛrəˈbɛsk/ A. n.† 1. The Arabic language; spec. vernacular Arabic. Obsolete.† 6. The general shape or form suggested by the lines of a painting, drawing, etc. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > languages of the world > Afro-Asiatic > [noun] > Semitic > Arabic
Araba1393
Arabicc1400
arabesquea1456
Arabian1570
Arabism1614
wog1947
a1456 tr. Secreta Secret. (Marmaduke, Ashm. 59) (1977) 203 (MED) Affter þe request of þe Kyng..he translated it oute of Arrabeske in-to Latin.
1699 P. Gordon Geogr. Anatomized (ed. 2) ii. ii. 266 The Vulgar Language..is the Arabesque, or corrupt Arabian, which is not only used here, but (with Variation of Dialect) is spoken over a great part of the Eastern Countries.
1737 B. Martin Bibliotheca Technologica xiv. 325 Their Language in most Places is the Arabesque, and old African Tongue, or a corrupt Dialect thereof.
1770 W. Guthrie New Geogr. Gram. 521 The Arabick, or Arabesque, as it is called, is still the current language, but the Coptic and modern Greek continue to be spoken.
1797 W. Beckford Azemia I. iii. 29 She thought in the Arabesque, her native tongue, in which if she had spoken nobody would have understood her.
a1815 D. Ramsay Universal Hist. Americanised (1819) II. 56 The modern Arabic, or Arabesque, is divided into an infinity of dialects widely diffused throughout Syria, Egypt and Northern Africa.
2.
a. A decorative pattern consisting of flowing lines (typically of branches, leaves, and flowers) that scroll or interlace. Also as a mass noun: decoration or ornamentation employing patterns of this type.The range of application of the term arabesque is broad. It can refer to the distinctive kind of interlacing decoration found in Islamic art or, as applied to Western art since the Renaissance, any type of curling or branching decorative pattern, esp. symmetrical scrollwork derived from ancient Graeco-Roman designs. In later use, the term has also been applied to East Asian art.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > ornamental art and craft > pattern or design > [noun] > types of pattern or design generally
Morisk1341
Moresque1458
arabesque1656
Morisco1728
all-over1808
Moresco1823
shawl-pattern1838
repeat pattern1851
repeat1855
unit1855
styling1867
counterchange1888
oriental1897
mosaicking1923
scenic1956
1656 T. Blount Glossographia Arabesque, Rebesk work; branched work in painting or in Tapestry.
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words Arabesque, a curious flourishing, or branched work in painting, or Tapestry.
1781 Ann. Reg. 1779 127/1 About each arch is a large square of arabesques, surrounded with a rim of characters, that are generally quotations from the Koran.
1844 B. Disraeli Coningsby I. i. iii. 35 A vestibule, painted in arabesque.
1868 Chambers's Encycl. I. 344/2 The arabesques with which Raphael adorned the galleries of the Vatican, and which he is said to have imitated from those which he had been instrumental in discovering in the baths of Titus, are at once the most famous and the most beautiful which the modern world has produced.
1920 Asia Apr. 258/1 A rare arabesque on its background of dull red invited the eye to journeys without end.
1961 M. Sullivan Introd. Chinese Art x. 199 He also perfected..a clear powder-blue, blown on through a bamboo tube and then often painted with arabesques in gold.
1995 Muqarnas 12 28/1 The iconographic program consists mainly of a delicate arabesque of half-palmette leaves and of confronted birds, antelopes, and fabulous creatures.
2009 Honolulu Weekly 11 Feb. 17/3 There are a few images of women that suggest a restrained eroticism that complements the evident delight in ornament and arabesque.
b. Something resembling part of an arabesque pattern; a shape characterized by flowing lines or having a curving or scroll-like form.
ΚΠ
1850 Athenæum 23 Feb. 205/1 Rising smoke, an arabesque of intertwisted and entangled waving lines.
1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xiv. 183 Pleased that his well-oiled hair was truly parted, and that the branching arabesques on his forehead were as accurate as a painter's bracket.
1971 ‘A. Burgess’ Inn of Sixth Happiness xvi. 190 The mountainside was studded with temples, each roof a soft curving arabesque against the trees.
2005 Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 11 Feb. 37 Burne-Jones depicted her with extravagant arabesques of red hair.
3. An ornate figure of speech; an intricate or elaborate combination of words, thoughts, ideas, etc.; an embellishment or elaboration. Also as a mass noun.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > figure of speech > [noun]
tropeOE
figurec1386
image1550
scheme1553
noema1555
rhetorical figure1565
idea1642
tropics1697
feint1730
arabesque1821
1821 Brit. Critic Aug. 114 Rejecting all superfluous ornament, all the arabesque of anecdote.., and rhetorical flourish.
1827 T. Carlyle Richter in Edinb. Rev. June 190 His manner of writing is singular—nay, in fact, a wild complicated Arabesque.
1898 Academy 10 Sept. 240/2 He will often give you less Marcus Aurelius' thought than an arabesque on that thought, filling out the bare text with epithets or clauses which are actually the commentary of his own fancy or erudition.
1925 Armour Engineer Mar. 97/3 A very clever speaker who has only a superficial knowledge of his subject can trace, in beautiful words and phrases, a feathery arabesque which is highly entertaining to his hearers.
1960 Times 29 Sept. 16/4 They have immense conversational vivacity; they fling arabesques of words about each other.
1992 Washington City Paper 24 Jan. 54/3 He expands..genuine grandeur, weaving dozens of thematic variations and narrative arabesques around a classical western foundation myth.
4. Music. A motif or passage used to decorate or embellish a melody; a composition rich in melodic ornaments of this type. Also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > piece of music > type of piece > [noun] > fantasia or rhapsody
fantasy1597
fantasia1724
extravaganza1797
arabesque1824
rhapsody1832
1824 tr. ‘Stendhal’ Mem. Rossini v. 58 In another place he attempts to prove that the author of Othello has made nothing but arabesques [Fr. arabesques] in music.
1841 Brit. & Foreign Rev. 12 219 The melodic ideas they contain..are so decorated with arabesques, that the vocalist changing the decorations must still replace them by ornaments of the same school.
1864 Cramer, Beale & Wood's New Eds. Piano Forte Works Misc. Ser., No. 4. (title) Arabesques, by R. Schumann.
1878 Scribner's Monthly Feb. 548/1 The more striking strains are perfect arabesques of melody, composed of a few full, round, mellow notes.
1924 A. D. Sedgwick Little French Girl iii. vii. 285 Listening to a blackbird that fluted golden arabesques.
1974 K. Klose & P. A. McCombs Typhoon Shipments ii. 37 The stereo went on while he was adding tonic, the pleasant arabesques of the Modern Jazz Quartet.
2005 A. Thomas Polish Music since Szymanowski viii. 122 A roll on a side drum is capped..by a second arabesque, this time by clarinet and flute.
5. Ballet. A position in which the dancer stands on one leg, with the other leg extended behind with the knee straight and the foot pointed. Hence: a similar position in figure skating, other forms of dance, etc. Also in in arabesque: in or assuming such a position. The exact position and angle of the torso, arms, legs, and supporting foot vary.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > dancing > ballet > [noun] > movements > pose
attitude1721
arabesque1828
pose1845
écarté1922
fish dive1943
1828 R. Barton tr. C. Blasis Code of Terpsichore ii. v. 74 Nothing can be more agreeable to the eye than those charming positions which we call arabesques [Fr. arabesques].
1829 Monthly Rev. Jan. 29 In..three of the arabesques in plate 11, the raised leg looks more like a wooden one screwed on at right angles to the body, than an animated limb.
1889 G. B. Shaw in Star 4 Oct. 2/4 The entrechats, battements, ronds de jambes, arabesques, élévations, and what's-his-names of the art of theatrical dancing.
1922 H. T. Parker Eighth Notes viii. 228 The subtler attributes and graces of the old dancing shone in her—in the..keeping of her body in flowing or arrested arabesque.
1979 M. Fonteyn Magic of Dance (1980) 201 She and her father..were to forge the image of the ballerina that we now take for granted, standing on one toe in an airy arabesque.
2004 R. Samuels Kids' Bk. Figure Skating vi. 111 Arabesques are beautiful skating moves. You will feel like a bird in flight when you master them.
2007 J. Kavanagh Nureyev (2008) xii. 362 He found the quirkiness of the movements great fun, amiably carrying out a series of slow somersaults while..supporting Margot in a rotating arabesque.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > [noun] > line or beauty of line
arabesque1879
calligraphy1928
1879 W. H. Armstrong tr. E. Véron Æsthetics iv. 260 The general line which governs the mass of a picture is a very important part of what we term its composition. It is called, in technical language, the arabesque [Fr. arabesque] of the picture.
1883 W. H. Armstrong in Eng. Illus. Mag. 155/1 The same qualities, but with more freedom and a finer arabesque.
B. adj.
1. Originally: designating the Arabic language. Later: Arab or Arabian in character, appearance, or style.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of Near East, Middle East, or Asia Minor > native or inhabitant of Arabia or Saudi Arabia > [adjective]
arabesque1842
1593 tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Babilone in J. Eliot Ortho-epia Gallica i. 18 French-fine, Italian-glorious, Numidian, Arabesko [Fr. Arabique], Assyrian, Caldaean, Persian tongues, the Turkish and Moresko.
1712 H. Curzon Universal Libr. II. 50 The Holy Decalogue and the Delusive Alchoran were both given in the Arabesque Tongue.
1733 tr. Anc. Accts. India & China 55 I saw the Image of Mohammed riding upon a Camel, and his Companions about him on their Camels, with Shooes of the Arabesque Mode on their Feet.
1816 M. Keating Trav. (1817) I. 232 It seemed as if this Arabesque taste had been trained to adhere to the modes of Nature.
1842 Encycl. Brit. II. 693/1 Though a follower of the Arabian school, the assiduity with which he cultivated anatomy has rescued his name from the inglorious obscurity in which the Arabesque doctors have in general slumbered.
1923 F. L. Pattee Devel. Amer. Short Story i. 7 Thence on to France and Arabesque Spain and the Alhambra.
1989 L. S. Luedtke Nathaniel Hawthorne & Romance of Orient v. 163 A lighter arabesque quality offset the grotesque in Hawthorne's writing, and his allegories, fairy legends, and apologues steadily followed an Eastern vein.
2005 L. Abu-Lughod Dramas of Nationhood ii. 48 Decorating at least one room with Arabesque furniture was common among the cultured [in Cairo] in the 1970s and 1980s.
2.
a. Designating a decorative pattern consisting of flowing lines (typically of branches, leaves, and flowers) that scroll or interlace. Also: carved, painted, or decorated with such a design. See sense A. 2a.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > ornamental art and craft > pattern or design > [adjective] > types of pattern or design generally
stained1397
trailed1490
printed1535
rebesk?a1549
arabesque1731
arabesqued1817
tropical1852
hand-printed1856
repeating1863
1731 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II. (ed. 2) at Mosks They are..adorned on the inside with compartiments and pieces of Arabesque work.
1759 W. Harte Hist. Life Gustavus Adolphus I. 36 A grave-digger's house, garnished..with an Arabesque fresco of shank-bones crossed, skulls, and hour-glasses.
1791 World 12 Jan. 1/3 (advt.) Sundry set, running, and arabesque Patterns, from 3d. to 2s. per yard.
1835 ‘J. A. Arnett’ Bibliopegia ii. 98 Instead of covering with gold, the book is ornamented with gothic or arabesque compartments.
1881 Cent. Mag. Nov. 19/1 A pair of tiny coffee-cups, decorated with a red-and-gold arabesque ornamentation.
1918 Good Furnit. May 283/2 The complete Greco-Roman tradition left to posterity such consummated forms as the arabesque panel.., the scroll, the vase and the various architectural orders.
1989 J. Housego in R. W. Ferrier Arts of Persia viii. 119 This carpet has a magical quality; the medallion and its radiating ogives..appear to float above the deep blue ground with its floral arabesque pattern.
2005 M. Douglas & C. Irvine Brunschwig & Fils up Close xi. 189 A grand entrance hall..designed using the neoclassic arabesque wallpaper Les Sylphides.
b. figurative and in figurative contexts. Ornate, intricate, or complex. Also: fantastical; strangely mixed.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > disorder > irregularity > unconformity > abnormality > [adjective] > strange
uncouthc900
unketha1275
solein1390
foreigna1393
uncoc1410
unquod1542
estrange1549
strangy1558
estrangeful1613
unco-like1636
arabesque1847
other-dimensional1934
Martian1953
weirded out1973
1799 ‘J. Dawplucker’ Number Second 85 Though the main body of the work is by the elder professor of midwifery, the ornaments! [sic] are certainly by the junior professor, and are in the very finest Arabesque style.
1847 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) xii. 118 Surrounded by this arabesque work of his musing fancy.
1863 C. C. Clarke Shakespeare-characters xvi. 411 Launcelot is a sort of ‘arabesque’ character.
1882 J. Hawthorne Dust (1883) xii. 123 There was an arabesque bias in him, so to speak, that prompted him to shun straightforwardness.
1921 Mod. Philol. 18 504 A simple description of all good verse..as a weaving about a verse-norm of any sort of arabesque variant which leaves the norm still perceptible.
1996 E. Margolies in C. Himes Pinktoes 262 The subsequent publishing history of the novel is as devious and arabesque as Mamie Mason's schemes.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
arabesquev.
/ˌarəˈbɛsk/, U.S. /ˌɛrəˈbɛsk/ transitive. To ornament or decorate with arabesque designs or patterns. Also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > ornamental art and craft > pattern or design > pattern [verb (transitive)] > types of pattern or design generally
stain1390
trail1399
arabesque1849
1849 A. R. Smith Pottleton Legacy xxxii. 379 A more frightful sum in face-plaster and red ochre..than would have repaired and arabesqued her tumble-down conservatory.
1861 G. A. Sala Seven Sons Mammon v, in Temple Bar Feb. 306 The same embroideress who arabesqued the hems of her underskirts pinked the shrouds.
1887 F. Caddy Through Fields with Linnæus II. xx. 273 The foliage diversified by beech trees feathering among red-lichened rocks,..with bracken fronds arabesquing the ground.
1905 Cent. Mag. May 74/2 He has written something on his ceiling in huge poster characters, not easy to make out. Then he has arabesqued all the lower part of the wall.
1997 R. Hardin Distorture (1998) xxvi. 198 The drapes themselves are arabesqued with sutric couplings in patterns of orange and red.
Derivatives
araˈbesquing adj. that embellishes or decorates something with arabesque designs or patterns; that is shaped or patterned in an arabesque style; also in extended use.
ΚΠ
1908 G. Saintsbury in Cambr. Hist. Eng. Lit. II. vii. 191 In most great English humorists, humour sets the picture with a sort of vignetting or arabesquing fringe and atmosphere of exaggeration and fantasy.
1990 Times Lit. Suppl. 5 Jan. 15/4 The compelling calligraphy of his arabesquing pen.
2011 M. Hauf Seducing Vampire xxii. 233 Viviane stopped before the constellation of crystal droplets, guttered candles and arabesquing iron.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.adj.a1456
v.1849