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ARABESQUE

Volume 2 · 76 words · 1810 Edition

or Arabesek, something done after the manner of the Arabs. Arabesque, Grateque, and Moretique, are terms applied to such paintings, ornaments of friezes, &c. wherein there are no human or animal figures, but which consist wholly of imaginary foliage, plants, stalks, &c. The words take their rise from hence, that the Moors, Arabs, and other Mahometans, use these kinds of ornaments; their religion forbidding them to make any images or figures of men or other animals.