1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Baroque

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Baroque, a technical term, chiefly applicable to architecture, furniture and household decoration. Apparently of Spanish origin — a barrueco is a large, irregularly-shaped pearl — the word was for a time confined to the craft of the jeweller. It indicates the more extravagant fashions of design that were common in the first half of the 18th century, chiefly in Italy and France, in which everything is fantastic, grotesque, florid or incongruous — irregular shapes, meaningless forms, an utter lack of restraint and simplicity. The word suggests much the same order of ideas as rococo.