mosaic

Multiple Entries:
  mosaic    Mosaic  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
mosaic /mə(ʊ)ˈzeɪɪk/

▶noun

• 1 a picture or pattern produced by arranging together small pieces of coloured stone, tile, or glass.

  ■ a colourful pattern resembling a mosaic.

• 2 Biology an individual (especially an animal) composed of cells of two genetically different types.

• 3 (also mosaic disease) a virus disease that results in leaf variegation in tobacco, maize, sugar cane, and other plants.

• 4 an arrangement of photosensitive elements in a television camera.

▶verb (mosaics, mosaicking, mosaicked) decorate with a mosaic.

– derivatives
mosaicist noun.

– origin ME: from Fr. mosaïque, based on L. musi(v)um ‘decoration with small square stones’, perh. ult. from Gk mousa ‘a muse’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
Mosaic /məʊˈzeɪɪk/

▶adjective of or associated with Moses.

– origin C17: from Fr. mosaïque or mod. L. Mosaicus.