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millefiori

or mil·le·fi·o·re

[mil-uh-fee-awr-ee, -ohr-ee]
noun
  1. decorative glass made by fusing multicolored glass canes together, cutting them crosswise, joining them into new groups, embedding the groups in transparent glass, and blowing the resultant mass into a desired shape.
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Origin of millefiori

1840–50; < Italian, equivalent to mille thousand (< Latin) + fiori, plural of fiore < Latin flōri- (stem of flōs) flower
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for millefiori

Historical Examples

  • Millefiori or chevron bead of yellow and black glass, almost certainly Venetian.

    Contributions From the Museum of History and Technology

    Ivor Noel Hume

  • The central pendant, also circular, is ornamented with a section from a rod of Roman millefiori glass set in gold.

    Jewellery

    H. Clifford Smith,

British Dictionary definitions for millefiori

millefiori

noun
    1. decorative glassware in which coloured glass rods are fused and cut to create flower patterns: an ancient technique revived in Venice in the sixteenth century and in France and England in the nineteenth century
    2. (as modifier)a millefiori paperweight
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Word Origin

C19: from Italian: thousand flowers
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012