intaglio means A design or piece of art which is engraved or etched into something. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.
intaglio is pronounced /ɪnˈtæl.jəʊ/.
Why “intaglio” is a great word
INTAGLIO — [Noun] A design, gem, or printing process where the image is created by engraving or etching into a surface, the recessed areas of which hold the ink for printing. From Italian intaglio (“engraved work”), from intagliare (“to engrave, cut in”), from in- (“in”) + tagliare (“to cut”), from Late Latin taliare (“to cut”). First attested in English c. 1640. Unlike a cameo, which presents a raised image in relief, or relief printing, which inks the elevated surfaces of a block, intaglio is an art of absence, of hollowed channels. It is the sharp, deliberate bite of the burin into copper; the dark, viscous ink lingering in furrowed lines; and the crisp, embossed edge of the final proof where paper has been forced to marry the void. The image is not laid upon the surface but pulled, with immense pressure, from what has been patiently taken away.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian intaglio, from intagliare (“to engrave”).
noun
- A design or piece of art which is engraved or etched into something.“On a wooden pub sign daringly taken, one daylight raid, by a drunken Bartley Gobbitch, across which still survives in intaglio the legend SNIPE AND SHAFT, Teddy Bloat is mincing bananas with a great isosceles knife.”
- Any printing method in which the ink is laid upon the sunken parts of the printing form.
verb
- To engrave or etch using intaglio.