Etymograph

English

tesselar

Tesselar comes from Latin tessella ‘a small square piece, a little cube’, from Ancient Greek τέσσαρες ‘four’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷetwóres1‘four’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*kʷétwores1‘four’reconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτέσσαρες2‘four’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtessera3‘a square piece of stone, wood, etc., a die’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtessella3‘a small square piece, a little cube’diminutive of tessera
  6. Englishtodaytesselar3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek τέσσαρες
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin tessera
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English tesselar

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷetwóresWiktionary, Ancient Greek τέσσαρες‘four’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*kʷétworesWiktionary, Ancient Greek τέσσαρες‘four’reconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτέσσαρεςWiktionary, Latin tessera‘four’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtesseraWiktionary, English tesselar‘a square piece of stone, wood, etc., a die’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtessellaWiktionary, English tesselar‘a small square piece, a little cube’diminutive of tessera
  6. EnglishtodaytesselarWiktionary, English tesselar

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres ‘four’

fourth, quarry, cater, kern, farthing, quatre, quire, cuatro, carillon, quatrain, ferd, tetrad, 17 more

Today it means

adj Formed of tesserae, like a mosaic.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “tesselar”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Ancient Greek τέσσαρες, Latin tessera. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres / tesselar

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