mosaic

来自拉丁语musaicum,献给智慧女神Muse的作品，词源同Muse,museum.一种古代的镶嵌组合艺术作品，后作为电影术语使用。

mosaic

mosaic: [16] Mosaic work is etymologically work ‘of the muses’. The word comes ultimately from Greek mouseion, which originally meant literally ‘place of the muses’, and has also given English museum. Somehow in medieval Latin it became altered to mūsaicus or mōsaicus, and passed via early modern Italian mosaico and French mosaïque into English as mosaic. It has no etymological connection, incidentally, with Mosaic ‘of Moses’ [17].
=> muse, museum

mosaic (n.)

c. 1400, from Old French mosaicq "mosaic work," from Italian mosaico, from Medieval Latin musaicum "mosaic work, work of the Muses," noun use of neuter of musaicus "of the Muses," from Latin Musa (see muse). Medieval mosaics were often dedicated to the Muses. The word formed in Medieval Latin as though from Greek, but the (late) Greek word for "mosaic work" was mouseion (Klein says this sense was borrowed from Latin). Figurative use is from 1640s. As an adjective in English from 1580s. Related: Mosaicist.

Mosaic (adj.)

"pertaining to Moses," 1660s (earlier Mosaical, 1560s), from Modern Latin Mosaicus, from Moses.

1. a design in mosaic

马赛克图案

2. The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.

今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面.

3. I was admiring the exquisite workmanship in the mosaic.

我当时正在欣赏镶嵌画的精致做工.

4. Archaeologists have worked for years to piece together the huge mosaic.

考古学家经年累月拼组这幅巨大的马赛克.

5. Major works of painting, sculpture, mosaic and architecture were examined in situ in Venice.

重要的绘画、雕塑、镶嵌画和建筑作品都在威尼斯原地得到了仔细检查。