arabesque
noun·/ˌær.əˈbɛsk/
1. An ornate, flowing decorative pattern of interlaced foliage, tendrils, and geometry. Complex without heaviness, intricate without clutter.
The plaster arabesque ran along the arch like ivy translated into pure thought.
2. In ballet, a pose in which one leg is extended behind the body, the line held long and deliberate.
She unfolded into an arabesque and seemed, for a breath, to suspend gravity by elegance alone.
adjective
Characterized by such ornament or by a sinuous, intertwining quality.
His prose grew arabesque as the night wore on, looping back to earlier images until meaning braided itself.
Etymology
From French arabesque "in the Arab manner," reflecting European fascination with Islamic decorative forms, where figural representation gave way to geometry and vegetal abstraction. In the word, style becomes a kind of motion: line seeking line, never settling into a single figure.
Related Words
filigreedelicate ornamental work; a tactile cousin
scrollworka broader term for curling ornament
grotesquedecorative mode with different ancestry and intent
interlacethe underlying principle of the pattern