An ornamental design featuring intertwining flowing lines, scrollwork, and stylized plant motifs, originally developed in Islamic art and later adopted in European decorative arts. The patterns avoid representational imagery, focusing instead on geometric and vegetal forms.
From French arabesque, meaning 'in the Arabic manner,' coined in the 16th century when Europeans encountered Islamic decorative arts through trade and conquest. The term reflects European perception of these intricate patterns as characteristically 'Arabian' or Islamic in origin.
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