intaglio / cameo
Sep. 25th, 2009 07:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordintaglio - n., an incised carving in a hard surface; a gem, seal, piece of jewelry, or the like so carved.
cameo - n., a raised carving in a hard surface; a gem so carved, especially when the relief image is in a contrasting color to the background.
Intaglio (in-TAHL-yoh) is a negative relief, cut into the surface, while cameo (KAM-ee-oh) is a positive relief, raised out of the surface -- like the figures on most coins. Intalio was borrowed around 1640 from Italian, from a derivative of intagliare, to cut in, engrave, from in- + tagliare, to cut (from Latin taliare, to cut). Cameo is older, borrowed from French in the early 14th century, in turn from Italian cammeo, from Middle Latin cammæus, after which the trail gets confusing but is possibly from either Arabic qamaa'il, flower buds, or Persian chumahan, agate. And yes, the sense of a cameo role, is a metaphoric extension in that it stands out from the other minor roles.
And that ends this week of doubles -- back next week with the usual mixed-up files.
---L.
cameo - n., a raised carving in a hard surface; a gem so carved, especially when the relief image is in a contrasting color to the background.
Intaglio (in-TAHL-yoh) is a negative relief, cut into the surface, while cameo (KAM-ee-oh) is a positive relief, raised out of the surface -- like the figures on most coins. Intalio was borrowed around 1640 from Italian, from a derivative of intagliare, to cut in, engrave, from in- + tagliare, to cut (from Latin taliare, to cut). Cameo is older, borrowed from French in the early 14th century, in turn from Italian cammeo, from Middle Latin cammæus, after which the trail gets confusing but is possibly from either Arabic qamaa'il, flower buds, or Persian chumahan, agate. And yes, the sense of a cameo role, is a metaphoric extension in that it stands out from the other minor roles.
And that ends this week of doubles -- back next week with the usual mixed-up files.
---L.
