The word tessera comes from Latin (plural tesserae). English borrowed it from Latin, and it is still part of everyday Italian. Its roots go back to Greek τέσσερα (téssera), the neuter plural of téssares, “four”, referring to its four-cornered shape.
Depending on where you come across it, tessera can mean:
- A mosaic tile: a small cube of stone, glass or marble set into a larger pattern. This is its main meaning in English today.
- A Roman token or tally. A tessera militaris carried the day’s watchword, while a tessera frumentaria was used for grain rations.
- A die, as in the familiar gaming cube.
- In modern Italian, an everyday membership card, ID card or season pass. A tessera sanitaria, for example, is the Italian health card.
- In planetary geology, the name for the heavily deformed, tile-like highland terrain found on Venus.