filigree means A delicate and intricate ornamentation made from platinum, gold or silver (or sometimes other metal) twisted wire. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 80 out of 100.
Why this word is great
FILIGREE — [Noun] Delicate and intricate ornamental work of fine (typically gold or silver) wire formed into lacy patterns. From French filigrane, from Italian filigrana, from Latin fīlum ("thread") + grānum ("grain"), a union of linear grace and particulate solidity. Unlike "embellishment," a blunt, catch-all term for adornment, or "lattice," which suggests a rigid, mathematical grid, filigree is an architecture of air, a deliberate capture of emptiness. It is the frost-ferns on a winter pane rendered in silver, the ghost of a spider's web captured in a pendant, the precise circuitry of a dragonfly's wing held in precious alloy—the exquisite paradox of persuading our strongest materials to whisper.
noun
- A delicate and intricate ornamentation made from platinum, gold or silver (or sometimes other metal) twisted wire.“To carry pure death in an earring, a casket, / A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket!”
- Anything resembling such intricate ornamentation.“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.”
verb
- To decorate something with intricate ornamentation made from gold or silver twisted wire.