I've always seen "cornflour" used in reference to cornstarch in recipes. I worked with a British caker who always rolled out fondant with "cornflour". I've seen arrowroot used more in savory applications, when acids are involved. And with pavlova...I feel like, you're not necessarily "thickening" it as you are retaining moisture for texture. I would say give it a go. Its just egg whites and sugar after all.
I am an Aussie and cornflour here is a wheat based thickener. It is confusing for many people. I am familiar with one brand here that is actually corn based and hence gluten free, but it is a soft flour texture, not cornmeal. If you are using an Australian or NZ recipe, it would. E this style they are referring to, not a coarser cornmeal type flour.
This has come up multiple times before and the popular internet opinion and Wikipedia is that at least in UK and Australian recipes, cornflour ( usually one word) is cornstarch. Beyond that it seems like take your best guess, there are references to it being fine corn meal as well as the equivalent to corn starch. Anyone from UK care to chime in?
I have always used arrowroot interchangeably with cornstarch. BTW, "cornflour" is cornmeal, not cornstarch, so I'd think you should use cornmeal and then arrowroot - unless you want to sub out cornstarch for the arrowroot.
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