Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A ballet position in which the dancer bends forward while standing on one straight leg with the arm extended forward and the other arm and leg extended backward.
- n. A complex, ornate design of intertwined floral, foliate, and geometric figures.
- n. Music An ornate, whimsical composition especially for piano.
- n. An intricate or elaborate pattern or design: "the fluctuating shapes of a cloudscape, the complex arabesque of a camera movement, the blink of a character's eye” ( Nigel Andrews).
- adj. In the fashion of or formed as an arabesque.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Arabian or resembling the Arabian in style; specifically, in art, relating to or exhibiting the variety of ornament known as arabesque. See II.
- n. A kind of ornament of a capricious and fanciful character, consisting of lines, geometrical figures, fruits, flowers, foliage, etc., variously combined and grouped, and painted, inlaid, or wrought in low relief: used especially for the decoration of walls and ceilings, but also for the decoration of objects of any nature. In the arabesques of the Mohammedans animal forms were rigidly excluded, in accordance with the requirements of their religious law; but the Greeks and Romans, and the Renaissance artists, among them Raphael and his scholars, to whom are due the rich arabesque decorations of the loggie of the Vatican, laid all the kingdoms of nature under contribution. The Greeks undoubtedly derived the idea of pictorial or plastic ornament of this kind from the Oriental stuffs, painted, woven, or embroidered with natural or fabulous forms of plants and animals, which were brought to them by Phenician traders from a very early period.
- n. In bookbinding, a term used in England for impressed ornamental work on the side of the binding, produced by the pressure of hot plates or rollers upon which the pattern is engraved.
- n. Also spelled arabesk.
- To enrich with ornament in arabesque.
Wiktionary
- n. An elaborate design of intertwined floral figures or complex geometrical patterns. This ornamental design is mainly used in Islamic Art and architecture.
- n. music An ornate composition, especially for the piano.
- n. ballet A dance position in which the dancer stands on one leg, with the other raised backwards, and the arms outstretched.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A style of ornamentation either painted, inlaid, or carved in low relief. It consists of a pattern in which plants, fruits, foliage, etc., as well as figures of men and animals, real or imaginary, are fantastically interlaced or put together.
- adj. obsolete Arabian.
- adj. Relating to, or exhibiting, the style of ornament called
arabesque .
WordNet 3.0
- n. position in which the dancer has one leg raised behind and arms outstretched in a conventional pose
- n. an ornament that interlaces simulated foliage in an intricate design
Etymologies
- French arabesque, from Italian arabesco, from arabo ("Arab"). (Wiktionary)
- French, from Italian arabesco, in Arabian fashion, from Arabo, an Arab, from Latin Arabus, from Arabs; see Arab. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“There's a beautiful sequence where Bond lifts her repeatedly in arabesque, each time on the in-breath, so that she gazes for a rapturous moment at some far horizon before returning to the formal intricacies of the duet.”
“144 I understand the curiously carved windows cut in arabesque-work of marble.”
“He invented that style of decoration which we now call arabesque or grotesque.”
“The merit of the picture is in the arabesque, which is charming and original.”
“So meeting Emily and having conversations about what she thought was important in dance and what she saw in dance kind of trained my eye as well … I want to tell a story Emily told me-we saw quite a bit of dance in London and talked a lot about dance-Emily explained there's this move called the arabesque, a ballet position, and it originated from this idea that seems very theatrical and very physical-theater, if I do say so myself, of trying to point to the moon -”
“So I started to play trumpet in a different way, drawing lines in space, musical lines, kind of arabesque kind of musical calligraphy.”
“Amidst the "arabesque" of richly drawn characters, Suskind reveals a few bombshell discoveries regarding the Bush Administration's irresponsibility and outright lies.”
“_grotesque_, or _promiscuously interspersed_; and the description here given leaves out the most beautiful kind of arabesque, namely, the inlaid work of geometrical figures in colored marbles, in which the”
“But, little by little one herb and flower after the other becomes individualized -- they are artists living themselves out into hues and lines and parts of a tableau; the vine draws itself in an arabesque which is perfect _because_ self-forming; and the whole harmonize with the sway of sunlight and shadow, with rustling breeze and hurrying ant on the footpath, and chirping birds, so exquisitely that you may feel, as you never have in studying human art or in poetry, that tones, colors, curves, organisms”
The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy
“arabesque" and other formal designs gave employment to the carvers, in making an infinite repetition of fiddles, festoons, and ribbons, in the execution of which they became so proficient, that their work is more often admired for its exquisite finish than for any intrinsic interest in the subject or design.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘arabesque’.
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A-R-A Words
It's an odd-looking pattern in English. Please add words if it makes you happy. :) K-POW! Wow @gulyasrobi!
scarab, Arawak, Sahara, Arab, pharaoh, caravan, carat, parachute, arachnid, Saran Wrap, Sarah, tarantella and 492 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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250 Extra Spelling Words
Some more words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
cultellarius, barouche, palanquin, badelaire, cavetto, tregetour, tergiversate, rhododendron, rhadamanthine, thyrsus, cappelletti, bradycardia and 238 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 more...
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Used
halcyon, ineluctable, inspissated, incarnadine, askance, demur, saltation, requisite, effusive, specious, liminality, indomitable and 114 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 2)
fable, sprite, syphilitic, anvil, wonderstruck, vertigo, bridled, tufted, fettered, savvy, tweed fedora, tryst and 255 more...
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forms/acts: art
threnody, eisegesis, imbricate, screed, lapis, requiem, colophon, homunculus, deus ex machina, apophthegm, anastrophe, anaphora and 47 more...
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-esque
alhambresque, picturesque, zolaesque, arboresque, dantesque, gigantesque, grotesque, burlesque, humoresque, arabesque, audenesque, cézannesque and 12 more...
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graphism
of or related to drawing—forms, tools, techniques, processes, practices, etc.
limn, vectorial, limned, synecdoche, adumbrate, lapis, colophon, grapheme, isogloss, sciagraphy, palimpsest, homunculus and 18 more...
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Pretty Words
Words that sound pretty.
ethereal, ephemeral, iridescent, shimmer, wisp, whisper, charisma, crescent, azure, mystery, fantasy, miracle and 142 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
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GRE Words
orotund, mendacious, inimical, foment, contumacious, abrogate, arrogate, syncretism, abate, abdication, aberration, abeyance and 123 more...
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the most beautiful
velvet, wainwright, susurrous, nutmeg, pegasus, tintinnabular, gossamer, lyricism, rococo, townlet, prince, nymph and 139 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for arabesque.

hernesheir Railroad telegraphers' shorthand notation for "Everything can be satisfactorily arranged". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906. Jan 19, 2013
bilby Attiued? Aug 16, 2009
nathalieeeee.ox What they say here, is not the propper meaning of the french terms! Because the deffinition they give you there could be the same for attiued
Arabesque means:
Postion on one leg in forth open.
And Attiued it alsoed asked about. Attiued means:
Postion on one leg in forth cross.
:) if you neeed any help with meanings i know them all!! Just e-mail me
at my.new.msn.09@hotmail.co.uk
xxx Aug 16, 2009
sarra I'm not sure of the reason for the term's use in ballet. I was going to research and write an article on the variations once; I may still do so. Feb 25, 2008
chained_bear Are you a ballet dancer, jennarenn?
I have to admit, I'm not much of a dancer (though I do enjoy on occasion rhythmically flinging my limbs about) and don't really appreciate it enough as an art form, but this word rocks. Feb 25, 2008
uselessness It's also the name of a pretty screensaver bundled with Mac OS X Leopard. Jan 21, 2008
jennarenn Yes. This is how every bad ballet knick knack depicts ballerinas. They often get it just slightly wrong, which drives me CRAZY. Jan 19, 2008
asativum This is a conventional pose? And what does it have to do with Arabs? Jan 19, 2008