Mosaic (pronounced moh-zey-ik)
(1) A picture or decoration made of small, usually
colored pieces of inlaid stone, glass etc.
(2) The process of producing such a picture or
decoration.
(3) Something resembling such a picture or decoration in
composition, especially in being made up of diverse elements (in general use, often
confused with a collage or montage).
(4) In surveying, a number of aerial photographs assembled
as a continuous photographic representation of an area (commonly called a mosaic
map, aerial mosaic or photo-mosaic).
(5) In architectural plans, a system of patterns for
differentiating the areas of a building or the like, sometimes consisting of
purely arbitrary patterns used to separate areas according to function but
often consisting of plans of flooring, reflected ceiling plans, overhead views
of furnishings and equipment, or other items really included in the building or
building plan.
(6) In the plant pathology field in biology, any of
several diseases of plants, characterized by mottled green or green and yellow
areas on the leaves, caused by certain viruses (also called mosaic disease); an
organism exhibiting mosaicism.
(7) In television production, a light-sensitive surface
in a camera tube, consisting of an insulating medium (a thin mica sheet) coated
on one side with a large number of granules of photo-emissive material (small
globules of silver and cesium insulated from each other). The image to be televised is focused on this
surface and the resulting charges on the globules are scanned by an electron
beam.
(8) Of, pertaining to, resembling, or used for making a
mosaic or mosaic work.
(9) As a general descriptor, something (physical,
abstract or conceptual) composed of a combination of diverse elements (in this
sense mosaic, collage & montage are often applied in undifferentiated
fashion).
(10) To make a mosaic; to decorate with mosaic.
(11) In theology, of or pertaining to Moses or the
writings, laws, and principles attributed to him (always initial capital).
(12) In genetics an alternative name for chimera (an
individual composed of two or more cell lines of different genetic or
chromosomal constitution, but from the same zygote).
(13) In graphical production (or as a tool of
censorship), a pixelization of all or part of an image.
(14) An early web browser developed by the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the name an allusion to the
integration of multiple components including HTTP (Hypertext Transfer
Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and Gopher's search & communications
protocols. It was the first widely
adopted browser which used an implementation of the user interface still in use
today.
(15) In palaeontology, as Mosaic evolution (or modular
evolution), a theory that evolutionary change can occur in some body parts or
systems without simultaneous changes in other parts.
1350–1400: From the Middle English, from the Old French mosaicq (mosaic work), from the Middle
French moysaique & mosaïque, from the Italian mosaico, from the fifth century Medieval
Latin mōsaicus & musaicum, a re-formation of the Late
Latin musīvum (opus), from the Latin musēum & musaeum (mosaic work) of unknown origin. The variants are assumed by etymologists to
be linked to the Late Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseîon) (mosaic work; shrine of the Muses; museum) by analogy
with archivum & archīum (archive) although the classical
Greek is nowhere attested in the sense “mosaic”. The Ancient Greek mouseios (of the Muses) was from Μοῦσα (Moûsa) (Muse).
Because of the influence of both Moses and the Muses, the history is
tangled. The word was formed in Medieval
Latin as though from the Greek, but the Late Greek word meaning "mosaic
work" was mouseion (and further
to twist the tale etymologists note this sense in Greek was borrowed from
Latin). The meaning "a piece of
mosaic work" dates from the 1690s while the figurative form (anything
resembling a mosaic work in composition) had been in use since the 1640s. The familiar adjectival use in English in the
sense of "made of small pieces inlaid to form a pattern" dates from
the 1580s. The spellings mosaick & musaic are listed by dictionaries respectively as obsolete & archaic. Mosaic is a noun, verb & adjective, mosaicked
is a verb, mosaicing, mosaicism & mosaicist are nouns, mosaiced & mosaicking
are adjectives and mosaically is an adverb; the noun plural is mosaics. All forms use an initial capital if used in
association with Mosaic law.
Although the specific technical
meanings are respected in science, in art & design, the terms mosaic,
collage and montage are often used interchangeably and that’s sometimes
understandable because the three can be visually similar and close examination
can be required to determine the correct form.
In the visual arts, a mosaic is created by locating & fixing small (classically
square tiles), usually colored pieces of inlaid stone, glass etc to create a pattern. A collage is a picture created by using items
of different shape, composition etc to create a (hopefully) thematically
integrated result. A montage is a work
created by in some way assembling a number of separate components which are
conceptually or thematically similar (even to the point of being identical.
The use in theology dates from 1655–1665,
from the New Latin Mosaicus, the
construct being the Late Latin Mōs(ēs) (Moses) + (the text-string) -aicus, on the model of Hebraicus (Hebraic). In writing relating to Mosaic law or ethics,
the adjectival forms Mosaical (which
pre-dated Mosaic) and post-Mosaic are common.
The Ebionites were a Jewish Christian sect during the first two
centuries after the crucifixion of Christ.
Ebonite was from the Latin ebonita,
from the Greek Ἐβιωναῖοι (Ebionaioi),
from the Hebrew אביונים (ebyon; ebyonim; ebionim) (the poor, the poor ones) and the sect’s name was chosen
to reflect their belief that poverty was a blessing and plenty a curse. Their Christology was adoptionist, maintaining
Jesus of Nazareth was mere human flesh & blood and therefore Christians
continued bound by the Mosaic Law, the adherence to which was why God choose
Jesus to be a messianic prophet in the vein of Moses himself. While within the sect there were theological
differences but the central tenet was that the essential Christian orthodoxy of
the divinity of Jesus was a heresy and that he was the natural born son of
Joseph and Mary.
The Ebionite world-view obviously shares much
with Judaism but to mainstream (indeed almost all) thought within Christianity
they are wholly heretical, the rejection of Christ’s divinity the objection
rather than and technical points of difference with the Mosaic code of law. Islam of course objected to Christian
theology because it distorted the purity of monotheism, the doctrine of the
Trinity a dilution of the Abrahamic God and really a type of iconography. However, the Ebionites were faithful to the
original teachings of the historical Jesus and thus shared Islamic views about
Jesus as a prophet yet still mere human flesh and blood, leading to the
intriguing situation of the Jewish Christianity which vanished from the early Christian
church being preserved in Islam. The
particular Ebionite teaching of Jesus as a follower of Mosaic law was later reflected
in the Koran which were the words of the prophet Muhammad.
Detail of the pointillist hole punch technique. There are a number of pointillist methods using devices as varied as lasers and Sharpie brand pens.
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