quaternity
Meanings
- A group or set of four; a foursome, a quartet.
- A group of four persons forming the Godhead, in contrast to the Trinity comprising three persons.
- Synonym of quarter (“a fourth part”).
- Synonym of fourness (“the property or state of being four in number”).
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóresder. Latin quater Latin -nus Latin quaternus Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Proto-Italic *-tāts Latin -tās Late Latin quaternitāslbor. Old French quaternité Middle French quaternitélbor. ▲ Late Latin quaternitāslbor. English quaternity Learned borrowing from Middle French quaternité (“set of four things; (Christianity) dogma that there are four persons in the Godhead”), from Old French quaternité (modern French quaternité); and from their etymon Late Latin quaternitās (“set of four things; (Christianity) group of four persons in the Godhead”) (modelled after trīnitās (“triad; (Christianity) the Trinity”)) + English -ity (suffix forming abstract nouns). Quaternitās is derived from Latin quaternī + -tās (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting states of being); and quaternī is an inflection of quaternus (“four at a time; fourfold”), from quater (“four times”) (from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres (“four”)) + -nus (suffix forming distributive numerals). By surface analysis, quatern + -ity.