tessera

See also: tesserà

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tessera (“a cube, a die with numbers on all six sides”), from Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares, “four”).

Noun

tessera (plural tesserae)

1. A small square piece of stone, wood, ivory or glass used for making a mosaic.
2. (planetology) complex-ridged surface feature seen on plateau highlands of Venus and perhaps on Triton

Derived terms

• tessellate
• tesseract

Anagrams

• Easters, Teressa, arsetes, earsets, erasest, erastes, reseats, saeters, searest, seaters, starees, teasers

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Italian

Etymology

From Latin tessera (“a cube, a die with numbers on all six sides”), from Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares, “four”).

Noun

tessera f (plural tessere)

1. card; credit card
2. pass
3. tessera (small square piece used for making a mosaic)
4. domino

Synonyms

• tassello

Related terms

• fototessera
• tesserare
• tesserino

Verb

tessera

1. third-person singular present indicative of tesserare
2. second-person singular imperative of tesserare

Anagrams

• asterse, sareste, traesse

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares, “four”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtes.se.ra/, [ˈt̪ɛs.sɛ.ra]

Noun

tessera f (genitive tesserae); first declension

1. tessera
2. die (used in games)
3. watchword
4. token

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tessera	tesserae
Genitive	tesserae	tesserārum
Dative	tesserae	tesserīs
Accusative	tesseram	tesserās
Ablative	tesserā	tesserīs
Vocative	tessera	tesserae

References

• tessera in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tessera in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tessera in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• tessera in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to give the watchword, countersign: tesseram dare (Liv. 28. 14)
    
• tessera in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tessera in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin