Myths & disputes

mosaic

Mosaic tile-work has nothing to do with Moses: the word goes back to the Muses, whose grottoes the Romans decorated with inlaid stones. Italian mosaico spread it to French, German, Russian and Polish, Greek re-borrowed it, and Japanese mozaiku now mostly means the pixelation that blurs a censored image.

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The story you may have heard

Not from Moses. 'Mosaic' as in 'Mosaic law' is a separate word (1660s, from Modern Latin Mosaicus 'of Moses') that only happens to look the same.

The road to English

From Italian to German

From Italian to Russian

From Italian to French, Turkish

From Italian to Polish

From Medieval Latin to Spanish

From Italian to Modern Greek

From English to Japanese

350 BCEAncient Greek

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

mosaic

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The road to English

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