lazo

13:16 Jul 10, 2019 

Good solution. And I'm not all that surprised you've decided against "stalactite squinch"; it has a certain ring to it, but it doesn't sound very graceful. :-)

12:44 Jul 10, 2019 

Well, like you, I've kept digging, and now that I know better what it's in reference to (and actually found some images, which definitely helped a lot), I think I've got a handle on it. I found one source that claimed that muquarna was the term used for the feature in Islamic/Arabic cultures, but mocarabe was used for the same feature in Spanish architecture. However, I also decided that the term "honeycomb vaulting" would be a good compromise between "authentic" architectural lingo and enough descriptiveness to help the layman out without offending any architectural experts. And no, just on aesthetic grounds, I don't think I could bring myself to use "stalactite squinch". :-)

07:26 Jul 10, 2019 

Do you fancy "stalactite squinch"? The Met uses it:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/449461

07:20 Jul 10, 2019 

Though (back-pedalling a little) I think you could adopt one of Cindy's perfectly correct alternatives in that question (stalactite work or honeycomb work) to make it a bit more accessible if you like.

18:30 Jul 9, 2019 

I think so, yes. "Mocarabe" is the Spanish term, and although I wouldn't be surprised if some people do use it in English (possibly because they don't know what it is), I think most specialists call this feature a muqarna(s). There's no question that this is a term used in English in relation to Islamic architecture. That's what I would do.

Here's a previous question I've only just found. The answerer is/was an art specialist:
https://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish-to-english/architecture/8...

As for whether to gloss the meaning, personally I wouldn't. Even if it weren't an article for specialists in architecture, I always tend to feel that if readers don't understand a term all they have to do is google it; they don't even have to buy a dictionary these days. If they can't be bothered, that's their problem. But in this context I think it's not only unnecessary but actually undesirable, since it implies that readers will not have heard of it, and specialist readers don't like being patronised.

18:06 Jul 9, 2019 

I saw both mocarabe (without an accent for the English spelling) and muqarna (which I only found without the S on the end) when I went looking for English translations. I thought about glossing the meaning, but since it is supposedly an article geared towards experts in architecture, I thought it probably wasn't necessary. But I may yet decide to do so, now that I think more about it.

The reason I left it mocarabe was simply because that was the "translation" I found first. I discovered muqarna purely by accident as I was digging for something to do with lazos (go figure), and from the source I was reading, I wasn't sure if they were saying that was the term used in English or not, whereas it looked like mocarabe WAS a recognized English form. Again, I'll have to think about this more before I decide for sure. But I take it you're inclined to think muquarna is the way to go?

16:26 Jul 9, 2019 

I'm not sure whether the singular should be a muqarna or a muqarnas: you find both forms.

07:54 Jul 9, 2019 

Are you OK with mocárabe? I mention it because I didn't know what it meant until I looked. The word is commonly spelt like that though clearly it must originally have been moçárabe, i.e. the old spelling of mozárabe.

Here it means a kind of decorative element:

"El artesonado tiene forma octogonal, está decorado con estrellas de seis puntas recorridas por un cordón y muestra en el centro un mozárabe (un elemento arquitectónico decorativo a base de prismas yuxtapuestos)."

In English I think "mocárabes/mozárabes" would be called "muqarnas".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muqarnas

"The arched niche at the mosque's entrance facing Wazir Khan Chowk is richly decorated with floral motifs, and features one of Lahore's first examples of a muqarna - an architectural element found at the Alhambra in Spain, as well as on several imperial mosques in Iran."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wazir_Khan_Mosque