cameo
(ˈkæmiːəʊ)
[a. It. caméo, camméo, corresp. to med.L. cammæus (Du Cange): of unknown derivation. Rarely accented as in It. on e.
The mod.F. camée (masc.) is ad. It. cameo (also cammeo, both in Florio 1611). Older F. forms were camehu, cameu, camaheu, camahieu, gamahieu (whence MHG. gâmaheu), camahier, camayeu, and camaïeu still in use, whence occasional Eng. camaieu in 18th c. Sp. has camafeo (in Minsheu 1623) Pg. camafeo (also acc. to Diez camafeio, camafeu); med.L. had camahutus (in England) 1295, camahotus, camahelus, camaheu, 14th c.; Du Cange has also camasil, camaynus, camayx; camæus (Lives of Abbots of St. Albans). Some of these, possibly all, are formed from the modern langs., though the relations between the earliest known forms, med.L. camahūtus, and OF. camehu, cameu, all found in England in 13th c. documents, are uncertain. Of the derivation nothing is yet known: guesses may be seen in Mahn, Diez, and Littré.]
1. a. A precious stone having two layers of different colours, in the upper of which a figure is carved in relief, while the lower serves as a ground. For this purpose the ancients used the onyx, agate, etc., and especially the sardonyx, ‘a variety of chalcedony, consisting of alternate parallel layers of white and red chalcedony’, which was carved so as to leave a white figure in relief on a red ground. Thence extended to all lapidary's work of the same kind; and in modern times (‘by abuse’ Littré says) to similar carving in shells of molluscs, of which the inner stratum is differently coloured from the outer.
| [1222 Ornamenta Eccl. Sarum in Register S. Osmund (1884) II. 129 Item capa una..brodata cum morsu argent. in quo continetur lapis unus cameu..Item capa una.. cum morsu argent. in quo continetur magnus camehu. 1295 Visitat. Thesaur. S. Pauli (Monast. Angl. III.) Septem annulos auri, novem cum saphyris..unum cum camahuto. 1530 Palsgr. 202/2 Camuse, precious stone, chamahievx. 1554 in Bristol Wills 193 My Ryng w{supt}{suph} A white camfeo. 1596 Danett tr. Comines (1614) 157 A ring set with a camée] 1561 Hoby tr. Castiglione's Covrtyer (1577) G j a, Olde coynes, cameses[?-oes], grauings. 1670 R. Lassels Voy. Italy I. 127 Rich jewels, strange stones, cameos, pictures. 1747 Dingley in Phil. Trans. XLIV. 506 The Merit both of Intaglio's and Cameo's. 1757 Keysler Trav. (1760) II. 27 Two exquisite cammei. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) I. 137 The ring which Henry sent..to Cardinal Wolsey, was a Cameo on a ruby of the king himself. 1791 E. Darwin Bot. Gard., The bold cameo speaks, the soft intaglio thinks. 1813 M. Edgeworth Patron. I. xvi. 269 A woman's accomplishment..ought to be..as Dr. South expresses it, more in intaglio than in cameo. 1865 Athenæum 28 June 127/3 Cameos and intaglios, ancient and modern. 1874 Westropp Precious Stones 45 Sardonyx..the Occidental variety..for camei. |
| attrib. 1860 Print. Trades Jrnl. No. 32. 30 The Cameo colour stamping-press. 1863 Kingsley Water Bab. v. (1878) 219 Her car of cameo shell. 1883 Glasgow Weekly Her. 5 May 8/6 Cameo checks in beautiful colourings at 8½d. |
b. Special
Combs.:
cameo-embossing (see
quot.);
cameo glass, a decorative glass consisting of layers of different colours, the outermost being cut away so as to leave the design or designs in relief, an example being the Portland vase;
cameo-incrustation, the art of producing bas-relief casts within a coating of flint-glass;
cameo-type, in photography, a name formerly given to a small daguerreotype which could be mounted in a jewelled setting;
cameo ware, pottery with figures in relief on a background of a different colour, as in Wedgwood ware.
| 1878 Encycl. Brit. VIII. 160/2 In the second variety [of colour embossing]—called cameo embossing—the colour is applied to the flat parts of the design by means of a small printing roller, and the letters or design in relief is left uncoloured. |
| 1879 Ibid. X. 649/2 The first place among those processes in which one colour was superimposed on another may be given to that by which the cameo glass was produced. 1961 E. M. Elville Collector's Dict. Glass (1967) 32 Cameo glass first made its appearance shortly after the Great Exhibition of 1851. |
| 1849 A. Pellatt Curiosities of Glass Making 119 Cameo Incrustation was unknown to the ancients, and was first introduced by the Bohemians, probably about a century since. |
| a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 433/2 Cameo-type, a fanciful name given to a small vignette daguerreotype for mounting in a jeweled frame like a cameo. |
2. transf. and
fig. Esp. a short literary sketch or portrait; a small character part that stands out from the other minor parts. Freq.
attrib.| 1851 Monthly Packet I. 5 Cameos from English history. 1871 C. M. Yonge (title) Cameos from English History. 1881 E. W. White (title) Cameos from the Silver-Land. 1901 Daily News 19 Jan. 6/1 This volume is mainly composed of biographical sketches... Altogether there are here about ninety of these cameo-biographies. 1917 A. Waugh Loom of Youth iv. vii. 314 He could give a clean-cut cameo impression of that monarch in two lines..: ‘A dreamer who unfortunately allowed his dreams to encroach on his waking moments.’ 1928 Daily Mail 6 Aug. 10/7 A daring act on motor-cycles..was followed by a cameo of the war. 1950 ‘E. Crispin’ Frequent Hearses i. 34 A cameo part..the film equivalent of a bit part on the stage. 1967 D. Pinner Ritual x. 108, I was an actor. Beloved for my cameos in the Classics. |