Pearling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The method entails embedding spherical items into a design
2. The process of creating small spherical or rounded shapes ; a technique of adding small, bead-like elements to embellish an item
3. The act of producing bead-like forms on a surface or material ; an ornamental practice involving placement of tiny, rounded details

Etymology: Pearls are the most ancient of gems, yet the word for them is surprisingly unsettled. It reached Middle English as "perle" from Old French, and its ultimate source is uncertain. One candidate is Latin "perna," a word for a shellfish shaped like a leg of lamb, which fits the oyster's resemblance to a haunch. Another is Latin "perula," meaning "little bag," a shape that suits the mollusc's enclosing shell. The verb "pearling" carries the gem's meaning into decoration: to adorn something with small beads, or to make it look like beads. The word's history runs in two directions at once, since the gem gave its name to a tiny typeface as well. Jean Jannon, a French printer, gave "pearl" to the smallest type he used in his miniature editions of Virgil, Horace and the New Testament in the 1620s, and that sense of very small size survives in printing.

Synonyms: beading, decorating, embellishing, ornamenting, adorning

Antonyms: stripping, removing, depriving, diminishing, lessening