tessara-
(ˈtɛsərə)
also tessera-,
a. Gr. τέσσαρα, -ερα, neuter pl. and comb. form of τέσσαρες, -ερες four, used in Greek compounds, and forming the first element in a few English words adopted from or formed on Greek. ˌtessaraˈdecad [decad], a group of fourteen. tessaradecaˈsyllabon [decasyllabon], a line of fourteen syllables. ˈtessaraˌglot a., in, of, or pertaining to four languages; = tetraglot. ˈtessaraˌkost [ad. Gr. τεσσαρακοστή a fortieth]: see quot. tessaˈraphthong [after diphthong], a group of four vowels. ˌtesseraˈtomic a. [after dichotomic], involving division into four parts.
| 1855 W. H. Mill Applic. Panth. Princ. (1861) 152 In the text of St. Matthew, dividing the *tessarodecads at the captivity. 1874 Farrar Christ 8 The symmetrical arrangement into tesseradecads. |
| c 1610 Bolton Hypercritica iv. §3 Chapman's Iliads, those I mean which are translated into *Tessara-decasyllabons, or lines of fourteen Syllables. |
| 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. III. 73 Whose *Tessaraglott Bible [Complutensian Polyglot] was finish'd about 1517. 1851 Borrow Lavengro xiv. I. 191 A tessara-glot grammar..of the French, Italian, Low Dutch, and English tongues. |
| 1850 Grote Greece ii. lxiii. VIII. 138 Receiving..three *tessarakosts (a Chian coin of unknown value) for each man among his seamen. |
| 1887 Sat. Rev. 17 Dec. 818 What Mr. Gladstone would call the trichotomic, or rather the *tesseratomic, division of parties. |