ornamentationn.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Purfle... Also a kind of Ornamentation about the Edges of Musical Instruments, particularly of Viols, Violins, &c.

1851 D. Wilson Archæol. & Prehistoric Ann. Scotl. iii. v. 445 A very great similarity..is traceable in the ornamentation of the whole northern races of Europe.

1879 J. Lubbock Sci. Lect. v. 160 The ornamentation on the arms, implements, and pottery..consists of geometrical patterns.

1895 Athenæum 14 Dec. 839/1 Many of them [sc. megalithic remains] are marked with scribings and other ornamentations.

1906 Archaeol. Æliana 2 147 The great difficulty of attempting to fix any relevant dates of Bronze Age beakers by a comparison either of their shape or ornamentation.

1943 G. Erdtman Introd. Pollen Anal. v. 43 The outer surface of the exine may sometimes be provided with some sculpturing or ornamentation.

1984 G. Jennings Journeyer 279 Their other favorite ornamentation was a..cape made of innumerable little shells called kauri.

1851 Littell's Living Age 29 Nov. 392/2 In the ornamentation of the draperies, machinery can be brought to bear with less detriment to refined taste, than has been unhappily the case in other branches of the decorative art.

1860 J. S. Mill Represent. Govt. (1861) 49 To the amusement and ornamentation of private life.

1866 Cornhill Mag. May 544 In the comparatively petty art of ornamentation, in rings, brooches, croziers, relic-cases, and so on, he has done just enough to show his delicacy of taste, his happy temperament.

1902 J. Conrad Heart of Darkness iii, in Youth 147 I had been struck at the distance by certain attempts at ornamentation rather remarkable in the ruinous aspect of the place.

1989 Scots Mag. Feb. 477 A museum..to preserve the methods, tools and styles of ornamentation which have evolved.

1879 G. Grove Dict. Music I. 80/2 The word ‘Arabesque’ is sometimes used by writers on music to express the ornamentation of a theme.

1938 Oxf. Compan. Music 675/1 Ornamentation in the old Italian vocal style had become so much second nature with them that nothing he could say would induce them to keep to the copies before them.

1947 A. Einstein Music Romantic Era xvii. 310 The ornamentation of the Russo-Oriental folk song.

1962 Listener 2 Aug. 189/3 Her ornamentation is always designed to stress dissonances at crucial points.

1988 Early Music 16 515 The idea that instrumentalists added improvized ornamentation to their parts in the 18th century is also nothing new.