millefleurs

British  

/ ˈmiːlˌflɜː /

noun

1. a design of stylized floral patterns, used in textiles, tapestries, etc

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Etymology

Origin of millefleurs

French: thousand flowers

Explanation

Millefleurs is a design style that's packed with tiny flowers and plants. Renaissance tapestries are famous for their millefleurs backgrounds. In French, millefleurs means "thousand flowers." Woven tapestries from several time periods, including the late Middle Ages, early Renaissance, and 19th-century England, commonly featured human figures in the foreground with millefleurs designs behind them. They're characterized by irregular patterns of small flowers on green backgrounds. North Indian carpets from the 17th and 18th centuries often used millefleur designs as well.

Example Sentences

These were the pieces in the series called The Hunt of The Unicorn, owned by John Davison Rockefeller Jr. Their worth was greater than $1,100,000; millefleurs tapestries, their backgrounds were filled with flowers.

From Time Magazine Archive

They exhibited the same indifference to my breath whilst I chewed some tobacco, and while a pellet of cotton-wool with a few drops of millefleurs perfume or of acetic acid was kept in my mouth.

From The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms, with observations on their habits by Darwin, Charles

An odour of millefleurs rustled by them as Charles Honeyman accompanied by his ecclesiastical valet, passed the pew from the vestry, and took his place at the desk.

From The Newcomes Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family by Thackeray, William Makepeace

Pellets of cotton- wool soaked in tobacco juice, in millefleurs perfume, and in paraffin, were held with pincers and were waved about within two or three inches of several worms, but they took no notice.

From The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms, with observations on their habits by Darwin, Charles

Talk of eau-de-cologne, and millefleurs, and jockey club!

From One Maid's Mischief by Fenn, George Manville