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.
   • 2014, Jerry Brotton, Great Maps, DK, page 35:

     The map was laid using tesserae, small cube-shaped tiles of limestone, marble, or colored stone.

2. (planetology) complex-ridged surface feature seen on plateau highlands of Venus and perhaps on Triton

Derived terms

• tessellate
• tesseract

Further reading

• tessera on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• tessera (Venus) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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”).

Cognate with Piedmontese téssera.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛs.se.ra/
• Rhymes: -ɛssera

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

Anagrams

• asterse, sareste, traesse

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Latin

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtes.se.ra/, [ˈt̪ɛs̠ːɛɾä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtes.se.ra/, [ˈt̪ɛssɛɾɑ]

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