Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A preparation of plaster of Paris and glue used as a base for low relief or as a surface for painting.
- n. A surface of gesso.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In the fine arts: A prepared mass or surface of plaster, usually as a ground for painting.
- n. Hence, by extension— Any preparation applied to a surface to fit it to receive painting.
Wiktionary
- n. a mixture of plaster of Paris and glue used to prepare a surface for painting
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Plaster of Paris, or gypsum, esp. as prepared for use in painting, or in making bas-reliefs and the like; by extension, a plasterlike or pasty material spread upon a surface to fit it for painting or gilding, or a surface so prepared.
- n. obsolete A work of art done in gesso.
WordNet 3.0
- n. gypsum or plaster of Paris spread on a surface to make it suitable for painting or gilding (or a surface so prepared)
Etymologies
- From Italian gesso (Wiktionary)
- Italian, from Latin gypsum, gypsum; see gypsum. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The crow on the back is black gesso from a stencil i cut, highlighted with paint marker.”
“Before applying the silkscreens to the wood beveled panels, she coats them with rabbit skin gesso, which helps to create the wonderful sense of luminosity her paintings possess.”
The Huffington Post: Quaytman Explores Terrain Between Text and Image in New SFMOMA Show
“It has been suggested that she even introduced the Syrian practice of wearing wigs to the women of Rome, although several detachable marble hairpieces belonging to female sculptures from the early and mid-second century have been found, some with traces of a plaster adhesive called gesso that was presumably used to stick the marble wig to the head.”
“Artists are familiar with yeso. .we call it gesso. esperanza”
“Modern acrylic-based grounds incorrectly called "gesso" do not damage the canvas so they can be applied directly without sizing.”
"Does the United States really want to be a country that sends horses to slaughter, here or abroad?"
“So, after I "gesso" the book, I let it dry standing upright and "fanned" open between coats.”
“_in tempera_ on a kind of gesso ground laid on a wooden planking nearly an inch thick.”
“Do you "gesso," as others said in the links I followed from your site -- and if so, how and when? ”
“When the gesso is dry, I breathe on the raised letter or design to moisten it so it can receive the thin sheaf of gold I carefully lay down with tweezers.”
“Puline purrs at my feet while I read about how to make something gold: First I outline my drawing in ink, next I paint on gesso where the gold will go.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gesso’.
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phrontistery - g
from phrontistery.info
gynaecology, gynaecomania, gyromancy, gyrograph, gyve, gyrus, gyron, gynaecocracy, gyrose, gynics, gutturotetany, gymnophobia and 439 more...
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museum words
words from work
provenance, accession, deaccession, conservation, preparator, registrar, curator, jargon, Oz clip, bell plate, stretcher, ornate and 115 more...
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A Time of Gifts
lambent, gonfalon, ait, eyrie, haberdashery, belfry, capstan, spinney, barbican, hobnail, wharf, waterlogged and 64 more...
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Gold Bug Variations
ciborium, sarabande, umber, melisma, lambent, emendation, nicassar, gesso, verdigris
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Just 'cause I like 'em, G
grocer, gabanergic, gabardine, gabbro, gaffe, gneiss, grapple, grosgrain, grommet, gratify, gossamer, goofy and 194 more...
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mariposa417's Words
cerulean, jewel, malfeasance, precipice, crossroads, beautiful, adore, sublime, superfluous, poppy, monarch, lashes and 101 more...
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Outlander series words
A place for me to keep words I found (or found anew) while reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. (Culling my enormous "Learned (or Encountered) in Reading" list.)
gralloch, yeuk, corpse-candle, saprophytic, baldachin, Kermanshah, celandine, tynchal, quaich, mesentery, basidium, dittany and 244 more...
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Fall Words 2009
sgraffito, maestá, tempera, size, gesso, obsolescence, hinterland, taboret, pram, amygdalate, pandect, loggia and 105 more...
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Grounded Words
an Eckhartian exercise of grinding
grind, grist, refrain, ground, grit, mitochondrion, groats, grout, gruel, great, gruesome, gravel and 162 more...
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breeze debris
autodidact, hollographic, neurotheology, pensive, grapple, nondual, integral, phantasmagoria, burnished, capacious, ginger, astral and 120 more...
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wordsmithing part deux
because wordsmith is not a verb.
enmity, incarnate, chignon, nape, solitude, nocturne, decorum, warren, svelte, interstice, serene, charlotte and 488 more...
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fancynancykay's list
A plethora of wonderful words
persiflage, plethora, dearth, antithetical, immutable, incorrigible, oxymoron, caustic, jocularity, antithesis, preternatural, genuflect and 18 more...
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antidisestablishmentarianist's Words
spongy, turducken, expunge, redact, diaspora, ingest, axillary, extant, gesso
Tweets
Looking for tweets for gesso.
chained_bear "... breathing in the smell of the pictures—the smell of oils and charcoal, gesso, paper, canvas, linseed and turpentine, a full-bodied ghost that floated out of its wicker casket...."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 645 Feb 3, 2010
bilby Italian - chalk. May 19, 2008