: adorned with figures (as flowers, animals) having significance rather than purely decorative elements (as scrolls, diapers)—used originally of the elaborately decorated initials of books and manuscripts and now chiefly of a symbolic representational manner of presenting supplementary information on a map or chart
Word History
Etymology
Medieval Latin historiatus (past participle of historiare to tell a story in pictures, from Late Latin, to relate, from Latin historia narrative, history) + English -ed