Bas-relief - plus, Calling In a New ‘Brigade’

[Merriam-Webster]( WORD OF THE DAY September 8, 2019 bas-relief [Audio pronunciation]( noun | bah-rih-LEEF Definition art : sculptural [relief]( in which the projection from the surrounding surface is slight and no part of the modeled form is [undercut]( also : sculpture executed in bas-relief Scroll down for more about bas-relief TRENDING NOW: [what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander]( [prorogue]( [the]( [freddo]( [SEE ALL [>]]( PEOPLE ARE READING [Calling In a New ‘Brigade’]( [The Good, The Bad, & The Semantically Imprecise - 9/6/19]( [Unmixing the Mix-up of 'Root,' 'Route,' and 'Rout']( [Words We're Watching: 'Editorial']( WORD GAMES AND QUIZZES: WEEKLY CHALLENGE [Back to School Quiz]( Pop quiz! [PLAY NOW]( Nailed this quiz? We have plenty more to try! [TAKE ME THERE [>]]( Did You Know? The best way to understand the meaning of bas-relief is to see one—and the easiest way to do that is to look at a penny, nickel, or other coin and examine the raised images on it; they're all bas-reliefs. English speakers adopted bas-relief from French (where bas means "low" and [relief]( means "raised work") during the mid-1600s; earlier, we borrowed the synonymous [basso-relievo]( from Italian. The French and Italian terms have common ancestors (and, in fact, the French word is likely a translation of the Italian), but English speakers apparently borrowed the two independently. Bas-relief is more prevalent in English today, although the Italian-derived term has not disappeared completely from the language. Examples of BAS-RELIEF "Three [works] that caught my eye were Maksymowicz's solemn plaster bas-relief of bones and tools, Gina Michaels' bronze sculpture of a prickly pear cactus with pads in the shapes of human feet, and Burnell Yow's totemic found-object sculpture topped with an animal skull." — [Edith Newhall, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 July 2019]( "Lorraine Hansberry's 60-year-old American classic about a black family in Chicago's South Side in the 1950s that has a shot at the American dream is given a volatile production that, like a bas-relief, brings out details and layers that have not been so clearly defined in more traditional approaches." — [The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 5 July 2019](578661) Test Your Vocabulary What 7-letter adjective beginning with "p" describes things that can be made into different shapes and also has the meaning of "sculptural"? [VIEW THE ANSWER [>]]( MORE WORD FUN: [WORD GAMES [>]]( [TRENDING NOW [>]]( [WORDS AT PLAY [>]]( FOLLOW US: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( SHARE: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [View this email in a web browser]( You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day. [Unsubscribe from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day]( [Manage your subscription settings]( Merriam-Webster, Inc. 47 Federal Street, P.O. Box 281 Springfield, MA, 01102, USA [www.merriam-webster.com]( | [Privacy Policy]( © 2019 by Merriam-Webster, Inc.