Other forms: filigrees
Filigree is delicate ornamental work in fine wire. Silver filigree, filigree earrings, a filigree pattern.
The wire is twisted and soldered into open lacy shapes with no backing, which is what makes it filigree rather than engraving — you can see through it. It is ancient and still made by hand in Portugal, India and Malta. Note that the word means thread and grain, from the wire and the tiny beads used with it.
1nounfiligreeDelicate ornamental work in fine wire.
“The necklace was made of silver filigree as fine as lace.”
filigree is a decorative work.
Italian filigrana is Latin filum, a thread, plus granum, a grain — for the wire and the tiny beads soldered to it.
Latin
fīlum — thread
Italian
filigrana
French
filigrane
English, today
filigree
Built from
From French filigrane, from Italian filigrana, from Latin fīlum (“thread”) + grānum (“grain”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA