Why this word is great
SMALTO — [Noun] A piece of colored glass used in mosaic. Borrowed from Italian smalto ("enamel"), from dialectal smalzo ("butter"), which is of Germanic origin; related to smalt and schmaltz—an etymology that glistens with unexpected domesticity. Unlike "enamel" (which coats surfaces uniformly) or "smalt" (a powdered pigment for ceramics), smalto exists to be fractured, arranged, and set alight by the sun. It is the cobalt shard catching midday light in a Byzantine apse, the emerald fragment pooled like algae in a Venetian courtyard, the ruby sliver glowing like a dying ember in the shadow of a Ravenna basilica—each piece a captive flame, waiting to be kindled into meaning by the patience of the mosaicist.