filigree

filigree

English

WOTD – 9 March 2010

A sterling dish, in filigree

Earrings with filigree

Alternative forms

• filagree
• fillagree, filligree (archaic)

Etymology

From French filigrane, from Italian filigrana, from Latin fīlum (“thread”) + grānum (“grain”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪl.ɪ.ɡɹiː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

filigree (countable and uncountable, plural filigrees)

1. A delicate and intricate ornamentation made from platinum, gold or silver (or sometimes other metal) twisted wire.
   • 1844, Robert Browning, The Labratory:

     To carry pure death in an earring, a casket,
     A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket!

2. A design resembling such intricate ornamentation.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 1, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, OCLC 3174108:

     But why speak about her? It is probable that we shall not hear of her again from this moment to the end of time, and that when the great filigree iron gates are once closed on her, she and her awful sister will never issue therefrom into this little world of history.

Translations

a delicate and intricate ornamentation made from gold or silver twisted wire

Albanian: filigran (sq) m Armenian: ֆիլիգրան (hy) (filigran) Basque: filigrana Bulgarian: филигран (bg) m (filigran) Catalan: filigrana (ca) f Czech: filigrán (cs) n Danish: filigran (da) n Dutch: filigraan (nl) n Esperanto: filigrano Finnish: filigraani (fi) French: filigrane (fr) m German: Filigran n Hungarian: filigrán Ido: filigrano (io) Indonesian: filigran (id) Italian: filigrana (it) f Kyrgyz: филигрань (filigranʹ) Lithuanian: filigranas m Macedonian: филигран m (filigran) Norwegian: Bokmål: filigran (no) n Nynorsk: filigran n Polish: filigran (pl) m Romanian: filigran (ro) n Russian: филигра́нь (ru) f (filigránʹ) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: филѝгра̄н m Roman: filìgrān (sh) m Slovak: filigrán n Slovene: filigran (sl) n Spanish: filigrana (es) f Swedish: filigran (sv) n Turkish: telkârî Ukrainian: філігрань (uk) f (filihranʹ)

a design resembling such intricate ornamentation

Catalan: filigrana (ca) f Danish: filigran (da) n Finnish: filigraanikuvio French: filigrane (fr) m Italian: filigrana (it) f Russian: филигра́нная рабо́та f (filigránnaja rabóta)

Verb

filigree (third-person singular simple present filigrees, present participle filigreeing, simple past and past participle filigreed)

1. (transitive) To decorate something with intricate ornamentation made from gold or silver twisted wire.

Translations

to decorate something with intricate ornamentation made from gold or silver twisted wire

Catalan: filigranar (ca) French: filigraner (fr) Spanish: afiligranar (es)