filigree

• filagree
• fillagree, filligree (archaic)

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

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪl.ɪ.ɡɹiː/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -iː

filigree (countable and uncountable, plural filigrees)

1. (chiefly jewelry) 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!

   • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     There were antiquities from Central Italy, made by the best modern houses in that department of industry; […] Genoese velvets and filigree, Neapolitan coral, Roman cameos, Geneva jewellery, Arab lanterns, rosaries blest all round by the Pope himself, and an infinite variety of lumber.

   • 1872 September – 1873 July, Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1873, →OCLC:

     […] the repose of the pool, the idle motions of the insects and flies upon it, the placid waving of the flags, the leaf-skeletons, like Genoese filigree, placidly sleeping at the bottom, by their contrast with her own turmoil made her impatience greater.

   • 1915, Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark‎:

     Her brown hair was waved in front and done up behind in a great twist, held by a tortoiseshell comb with gold filigree.

   • 1920, Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     She examined and appraised with much interest the diamond-tipped arrow which had been pinned on May's bosom at the conclusion of the match, remarking that in her day a filigree brooch would have been thought enough, but that there was no denying that Beaufort did things handsomely.

   • 1921, Booth Tarkington, Alice Adams‎:

     After that, having studied herself gravely in a long glass, she took from one of the drawers of her dressing-table a black leather card-case cornered in silver filigree, but found it empty.

   • 2014 March 12, Maev Kennedy, “Staffordshire hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold reassembled after 1,300 years”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     The quality of the Anglo-Saxon gold work, with many of the pieces decorated with filigree, ribbon interlace animals with almost invisible gemstone eyes, and tiny cut garnets backed by engraved gold to make them glitter more, whose detail can really only be appreciated under a microscope, is surpassed only by the treasures of the Sutton Hoo hoard.

2. (by extension) Anything resembling such intricate ornamentation.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 1, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     The trees grew so thickly and their foliage spread so widely that I could see nothing of the moon-light save that here and there the high branches made a tangled filigree against the starry sky.

   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

     Only the hair as it arched so beautifully from her temples was mixed with silver, and the two simple plaits that lay on her shoulders were filigree of silver and brown.

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.