Also 8–9 tesselate. [f. ppl. stem of late or med.L. tessellāre (pa. pple. tessellāt-us: cf. also It. tessellare in Florio), f. L. tessella TESSELLA. The pa. pple. tessellated occurs earlier than the finite vb.: see next.]
1. trans. To make into a mosaic; to form a mosaic upon, adorn with mosaics; to construct (esp. a pavement) by combining variously colored blocks so as to form a pattern.
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., I. 95. And dull Galena tessellates the floor.
1826. P. Pounden, France & It., 27. The floor is tesselated with great elegance.
1862. Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., I. v. 125. Pieces of marble used for tesselating.
b. transf. and fig.
1817. Coleridge, Satyrane’s Lett., iii., in Biog. Lit., etc. (1882), 264. The wood-work … in old houses among us … being painted red and green, it cuts and tesselates the buildings very gaily.
1858. E. FitzGerald, Lett. (1889), I. 269. It is most ingeniously tesselated into a sort of Epicurean Eclogue in a Persian Garden.
1869. Lecky, Europ. Mor., I. ii. 335. The affectation of some to tesselate their conversation with antiquated and obsolete words.
2. To combine so as to form a mosaic; to fit into its place in a mosaic. In quots. fig.
1838–9. [implied in TESSELLATED 2].
1861. J. Pycroft, Ways & Words, 17. The sentences [of Sir J. Mackintosh] are rather tessellated than constructed; each word fitting admirably into its own place, but defying all transposition.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, II. 189. Many writers have maintained that this meaning is vague and general,… impossible to tesselate into any formal scheme of salvation.
