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Mosaʹic Work

is not connected with the proper name Moses, but with the Muses (Latin, opus museʹum, musium, or musivum; Greek, mouseion; French, mosaïque; Italian, mosaïco). Pliny says it was so called because these tesselated floors were first used in the grottoes consecrated to the Muses (Xxxv. 21, s. 42). The most famous workman in mosaic work was Sosus of Perʹgamos, who wrought the rich pavement in the common-hall, called Asaroton œcon. (Pliny: Natural History, xxxvi. 4, 64.)

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Mortal
Mortar-board
Mortars
Morte dArthur
Mortgage
Morther
Mortimer
Mortlake Tapestry
Mortstone
Morven
Mosaic Work
Moscow
Mosen (Spanish)
Moses Horns
Moses Rod
Moses Slow of Speech
Moses Primrose
Moslem or Moslemin
Mosse
Mosstrooper
Mote and Beam (Matt. vii. 3–5)