quarter

en-noun

quarter (countable and uncountable, plural quarters)

From Middle English quarter, from Anglo-Norman quarter, from Latin quartarius, from quartus. Compare Spanish cuarto (“room, quarters; quarter”). Doublet of quartier.

cog

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-quarter.wav

çerek

one of four equal parts — see also one-fourth

(Canada, US) A quarter-dollar, divided into 25 cents; the coin of that value minted in the United States or Canada.


four

en-noun

four (countable and uncountable, plural fours)

Arabic numerals
Chinese numerals
Greek numerals
Roman numerals
four

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

non-rhotic, dough–door merger, African-American Vernacular

From Middle English four, from Old English fēower, from Proto-West Germanic *feuwar, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from previous pre-Grimm *petwṓr, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr, the neuter form of *kʷetwóres. Doublet of cuatro and quatre.
Cognates include Scots fower, Saterland Frisian fjauer, West Frisian fjouwer, Dutch vier, German Low German veer, German vier, Norwegian Bokmål and Danish fire, Swedish fyra, Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌳𐍅𐍉𐍂 (fidwōr) and, more distantly, Latin quattuor (whence Spanish cuatro, French quatre), Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares), Irish ceathair, Armenian չորս (čʻors), Lithuanian keturi, Albanian katër, Sanskrit चतुर् (catur).

четворка

rowing: four-man sweep racing shell or its crew

Letters to Sheffield are despatched every morning at six, and arrive every afternoon at ten minutes past four.

1828, Pigot and Co.'s National Commercial Directory for 1828-9, Comprising a Directory of the Merchants, Bankers, Professional Gentleman … in the Counties of Cheshire, Cumberland …, London, Manchester: J. Pigot & Co., page 767:

Frederick, I presume, at this late hour of four, may be snatching a morsel of dinner; […]

1865, Thomas Carlyle, chapter IX, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume VI, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:

The larger ships picked up the low lying atoll on their radar about four in the morning at distances from 16 to 26 miles.

1972, George Carroll Dyer, chapter XVII, in The Amphibians Came to Conquer: The Story of Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, volume 2, U.S. Marine Corps, →OL, page 657:


fourth

Inherited from Middle English fourthe, an alteration (due to four) of ferthe, from Old English fēorþa, fēowerþa, from Proto-West Germanic *feurþō, from Proto-Germanic *fedurþô, equivalent to four + -th.
cognates
Compare West Frisian fjirde, Saterland Frisian fjädde, fjoode, Dutch vierde, German Low German feerde, feerd, German vierte, Danish fjerde, Icelandic fjórði.

The fourth model is called the enlightment model: Actors are seen to be responsible for problems but unable or unwilling to provide solutions. They are believed to need discipline provided by authoritative guidance. The Alcoholic Anonymous^([sic]) groups are considered prototypical for this model.

2013 June 29, Leo Montada, “Coping with Life Stress”, in Herman Steensma, Riël Vermunt, editors, Social Justice in Human Relations Volume 2: Societal and Psychological Consequences of Justice and Injustice, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 26:

vierde

ordinal form of the number four — see also 4th

quatre

abbreviation IV;after the name;in names of monarchs, popes, and formal names in English

vierte

abbreviation IV. (in names of monarchs and popes)


tetrahedron

tetrahedron (plural tetrahedrons or tetrahedra)

tetrahedrons (plural)
tetrahedra (plural)

From Ancient Greek τετράεδρον (tetráedron, “triangle-based pyramid”), from τετράεδρος (tetráedros), from τετράς (tetrás, “four”) + ἕδρα (hédra, “seat”). By surface analysis, tetra- + -hedron.

uder

(geometry) A polyhedron with four faces; the regular tetrahedron, the faces of which are equal equilateral triangles, is one of the Platonic solids.


four one one

The number 411 dialed in North America reaches directory assistance.

Can you give me the four one one on their next concert?


quadruped

Borrowed from French quadrupède, from Middle French, from Latin stem of quadrupēs (“four-footed, a four-footed animal”), from quadri- (“four-”) + stem of pes (“foot”). Alternatively analyzable as quadru- + -ped.


quadrant

From Middle English quadrant, from Old French cadran, quadrant and its etymon Latin quadrāns, -antis (“fourth part of something, quarter”). Doublet of quadrans.

(mathematics) One of the four regions of the Cartesian plane bounded by the x-axis and y-axis.


quadruplet

One of a group of four, particularly one of four babies born from the same mother during the same birth.


quadrilateral

Learned borrowing from Latin quadrilaterus.

lbor

The Venetian quadrilateral comprised Mantua, Peschiera, Verona, and Legnano.

An area defended by four fortresses supporting each other.


quadruple

quarter

divided into four; one of four equal parts

From Middle English quadruple, from Latin quadruplus. Can be analyzed as quadri- + -ple.

He's quite an athlete and can do quadruple jumps with ease.

Being four times as long, as big or as many of something.

четворен

being four times as long, as big or as many of something


quadruple

en-verb

quadruple (third-person singular simple present quadruples, present participle quadrupling, simple past and past participle quadrupled)

quadruples (present singular third-person)
quadrupling (participle present)
quadrupled (participle past)
quadrupled (past)

Quadrupling four gives sixteen.

Our profits quadrupled when we made the improvements.

(intransitive) To increase by a factor of four.

चौगुना

(intransitive) to increase by a factor of four

On June 8, 1872, the London & North Western Railway obtained powers to quadruple its main line, and a new tunnel was bored for the up and down slow lines.

1950 September, “Network News: Watford Tunnel, L.M.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 641:

Quadrupling the short remaining stretch of three-track railway north of Rugby, left over by the turn of the century modernisation, is a possibility that could be pursued.

2019 October, “Railtalk: HS2 delay - time for lateral thinking”, in Modern Railways, page 7:

A long-term aspiration is to quadruple the cross-country route between Peterborough and Werrington Junction, removing any conflict between trains on the Spalding and Leicester lines.

2020 April 22, Paul Shannon, “Felixstowe: Is 47 trains a day achievable?”, in Rail, page 52:

(rail transport) To provide four parallel running lines on a given stretch of railway.


quadruple

Something that is four times the usual number, amount, size, etc.

(skating) A figure-skating jump with four revolutions in the air.


quatre

Borrowed from French quatre. Doublet of cuatro and four.

Accordingly the firſt beſt throw upon the dice is eſteemed aces, as it ſtops the ſix point in the outer table, and ſecures the cinque in your own, whereby your adverſary's two men upon your ace point cannot get out with either quatre, cinq, or ſix.

1775, “a Connoisseur”, “Containing an Account of the Game of Back-gammon, with the most approved Method of playing at it, and the Rules of the Game. Together with the Artifices and Legerdemains that are frequently practised at it.”, in Annals of Gaming; or, The Fair Player’s Sure Guide. Containing Original Treatises on the following Games. […], London: […] G. Allen, […], pages 181–182:

The firſt beſt Throw upon the Dice is eſteemed Aces, as it ſtops the Six-Point in the outer Table, and ſecures the Cinque in your own, whereby your Adverſary’s two Men upon your Ace-Point cannot get out with either Quatre, Cinque, or Six.

1775, “Introduction to the Game of Back-Gammon; With the most approved Method of playing at it”, in Charles Jones, editor, Hoyle’s Games Improved. Being Practical Treatises on the following Fashionable Games, […], London: […] J. Rivington and J. Wilkie, […], page 170:

(archaic, dice games, card games, dominoes) A card, die, or domino with four spots or pips.


quaternion

From Middle English quaternioun, from Late Latin quaterniō, from quaternī (“four each”) + -iō, from quater (“four times”). Doublet of kern. The mathematics sense was coined by Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton in 1843.

coin

The right-hand side of the quaternion equation requires scalar multiplication and quaternion addition.

2004, David H. Eberly, 3D Game Engine Architecture: Engineering Real-Time Applications with Wild Magic:

(mathematics) A type of four-dimensional hypercomplex number consisting of a real part and three imaginary parts (real multiples of distinct, independent square roots of −1 denoted by i, j and k); commonly used in vector mathematics and as an alternative to matrix algebra in calculating the rotation of three-dimensional objects.


Final Four

These two teams have an amazing number of Final Fours between them.

(basketball, US, informal) An appearance in the Final Four.


tetra-

From Ancient Greek τετρα- (tetra-), combining form of Ancient Greek τέτταρες (téttares), from τέσσαρες (téssares, “four”).

Which is how Kit first heard about the T.W.I.T. back in London, and of the ghostly neo-Pythagorean cult of tetralatry or worship of the number four, currently the rage in certain European circles

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 665: [cf. -latry]

tetra-

forming compound words having the sense of ‘four’


quarto

en-noun

quarto (countable and uncountable, plural quartos)

(paper) A size of paper (7.5"-10" x 10"-12.5" or 190-254 x 254-312 mm). Formed by folding and cutting one of several standard sizes of paper (15"-20" x 20"-25" or 381-508 x 508-635 mm) twice to form 4 leaves (eight sides).

(UK) Quarto writing paper (10 inches x 8 inches)


quart

From Middle English quart, quarte, from Old French quarte, carte, from Latin quartus (“one-fourth”). Cognate with Spanish cuarto (“quarter; room, quarters”).

cog

A tierce major is good against any other tierce; a quart minor is good against a tierce major.

1908, Cavendish, The laws of piquet adopted:

(card games) Four successive cards of the same suit.


quartet

From French quartette, from Italian quartetto. Doublet of cuarteto and quartetto.

The string quartet played some chamber music.

A group of four people or things, particularly

(music) A group of four musicians who perform classical music together.

квартет

four musicians who perform a piece of music together

He composed a string quartet.

(music) A musical composition in four parts, each performed by a single voice or instrument.

The barbershop quartet performed the composition a cappella.

(music) A group of four singers, usually males, who sings together in four-part harmony.

The last of the quartet of American fighter pilots to join the RAF before the war was Cyril 'Pussy' Palmer, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in March 1918.

2015, Tony Holmes, American Eagles: US Fighter Pilots in the RAF 1939-1945:


four-dimensional

We live in a four-dimensional universe.

(physics) Relating to the four dimensions of space-time (three spatial dimensions with the addition of time as the fourth).


cater

From French quatre (“four”). Doublet of cuatro.

The auditour... cometh in with sise sould, and cater denere, for vi.s. and iiii.d.

1553, Thomas Wilson, The Arte of Rhetorique..., page 86:


tetrameter

en-noun

tetrameter (countable and uncountable, plural tetrameters)

(poetry) A line in a poem having four metrical feet.

tetrametër

a line in a poem having four metrical feet (poetry)


Tetragrammaton

Tetragrammaton (plural Tetragrammata or Tetragrammatons)

Tetragrammata (plural)
Tetragrammatons (plural)

From Ancient Greek τετραγράμματον (tetragrámmaton, “four-letter word”), neuter gender of τετραγράμματος (tetragrámmatos, “having four letters”), formed from a combining form of τέτταρες (téttares, “four”) and γράμμα (grámma, “letter”).

uder

τετραγράμματον

The starting point of this discussion was Origen’s much-debated comment to Psalm 2:2 concerning the Tetragrammaton in “ancient” Hebrew characters. A very approximate terminus a quo for this practice in LXX texts is the first century b. c. e., the date of the Cairo Papyrus Fouad 266, a revision of the Greek Torah from the second century b. c. e., in which the Tetragrammata are written in square Hebrew characters.

1971, Jonathan P. Siegel, “The Employment of Palaeo-Hebrew Characters for the Divine Names at Qumran in the Light of Tannaitic Sources”, in Hebrew Union College Annual, volume 42, page 160:

The Tetragrammatons are written out in such a way that the names of single letters are inscribed.

According to to R. Nehemiah, the double Tetragrammaton is one of Metatron’s 70 names: In gematria the consonants YHWH WHYH amount to 52. The two Tetragrammata do not leave any doubt as to the divine nature of the entities referenced here.

2007, Moshe Idel, Ben: Sonship and Jewish Mysticism, Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN, page 202:

A few coins and medals with Tetragrammata are found from the Netherlands at the end of the 16th century, but most are from the 17th century, with examples from Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland, as well as proud towns in the Holy Roman Empire (Nuremberg, Hamburg, Magdeburg) and several from Saxony.

2015, Robert J. Wilkinson, “The Tetragrammaton in Vernacular Bibles, Popular Print, and Illustration”, in Tetragrammaton: Western Christians and the Hebrew Name of God: From the Beginnings to the Seventeenth Century, Leiden, S.H., Boston, Mass.: Brill, →ISBN, part 3 (The Rediscovery of the Name), page 377:

יהוה יהוה#Hebrew

(Judaism) The word in four Hebrew letters יהוה (in transliteration as YHWH or JHVH) used as the ineffable name of God in the Hebrew Bible, variously rendered as Yahweh or Jehovah.

քառագիր

the four Hebrew letters י-ה-ו-ה, used as the ineffable name of God

הַשֵּׁם הַמְפוֹרָשׁ m (haššēm hamfōrāš, literally “the explicit name”)


quadroon

From Spanish cuarterón (“¾ white, a child of a European and a mestizo”), from cuarto (“one-fourth”) + -on (“-oon: forming related nouns”), from Latin quartus (“one-fourth”). Doublet of cuarteron.

der

There were slow boys and bashful boys, feeble boys and riotous boys, boys that lisped and boys that stuttered, one or two lame ones, and a merry little quadroon, who could not be taken in elsewhere, but who was welcome to the ‘Bhaer-garten’, though some people predicted that his admission would ruin the school.

1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 47, in Little Women: […], part second, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:

1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter V, p. 63; Chapter VIII, p. 120 https://archive.org/details/capricornianovel00herb
Diana was a black quadroon, her father being a blackfellow.
He was the father of four quadroons who were regarded as half-castes because the lighter part of their mother's blood was Asiatic, and he was only too well aware of what their future would be should he desert them.

(dated, chiefly historical) A person considered three-fourths white, having one non-white grandparent.


fower

From Middle English four, fower, from Old English fēower.


quaternary

Derived from Latin quaternārius (“containing or consisting of four”), from quaternī (“four each”, “four at a time”) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French quaternaire.

der+

(organic chemistry) quaternary ammonium.


quarterfinal

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-quaterfinal.wav

(sports) One of the four competitions in a knockout tournament whose winners go on to play in the two semifinals.

çerekfinale

competition in a tournament whose winners go on to play in the two semifinals


quad

Shortened, via clipping or abbreviation, from various English terms. Ultimately related to Latin quattuor (“4”); compare quadri-, quadruple.
The typography senses are from the abbreviation quad. for obsolete quadrat; the keyboard command comes from the verb sense.

Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).

(chess) A kind of round-robin tournament between four players, where each participant plays every other participant once.

Cad was a ferocious driver of a quad, much given to wheelies, jumps and stunts in general.

2000, Sam Llewellyn, Wonder Dog, page 20:

System Rasterization Primitives • Polygons • Triangles, Trapezoids, Quads

1989, ACM SIGGRAPH '89 Course Notes, New York: Association for Computing Machinery, page 48:

schemes have appeared which generate good results when applied to meshes which contain both triangular and quadrilateral regions. These kinds of schemes turn out to be very useful for modelling animations, because there, in symmetric (e.g. cylindrical) areas, quads and vertices with valence 4 are preferred

2006, Koen Beets, Johan Claes, Frank Van Reeth, “Optimizing Mesh Construction for Quad/Triangle Schemes”, in Hans-Peter Seidel, Tomoyuki Nishita, Qunsheng Peng, editors, Advances in Computer Graphics, page 711:

Tris and quads have different areas of functionality. In real-time graphics, tris are the norm because they provide the most basic geometric representations of planes.

2010, Tony Mullen, Claudio Andaur, Blender Studio Projects: Digital Movie-Making, page 91:

(informal, computer graphics) A quadrilateral.


quad

en-verb

quad (third-person singular simple present quads, present participle quadding, simple past and past participle quadded)

quads (present singular third-person)
quadding (participle present)
quadded (participle past)
quadded (past)

Can you "quad" the cable?

1901, Report of the Industrial Commission on Transportation, page 232:

The star quadding of the wires ensures a reduction in the diameters of cables and their weight […]

The conductors in quadded cables are tinned and may also be enameled.

1965, Telephone Cable Splicing: Cable Terminations and Cable Repairs, United States. Department of the Army, page 906:

(transitive) To twist four individually insulated conductors together as two pairs of twisted wires that are then twisted together.

visibility was perfect and mud was plentiful for our quadding adventure.

2006 April 27, Christopher Thrall, “There’s a mud-eating grin to be seen after every quadding adventure”, in Vue Weekly, Edmonton, page 31:


cuarto

(unit of measure): From Spanish cuarto (“quarter-sack”), from Latin quartus (“fourth, quarter”). Doublet of quart, quarter, and cuarta, etc.

(historical) A traditional Spanish unit of dry measure, equivalent to about 27.8 L.


tetration

en-noun

tetration (usually uncountable, plural tetrations)

/tɛˈtɹeɪʃn̩/

/tɛˈtɹeɪʃən/

PIE word
 *kʷetwóres
From tetra- (prefix meaning ‘four’) + (itera)tion, from the fact that tetration is in fourth place after addition, multiplication, and exponentiation. The word was coined by the English mathematician Reuben Goodstein (1912–1985).

coinage

You don't ordinarily hear much about tetration because it is so powerful an operation that tetrating even very small numbers with each other produces inordinately large numbers. A tetration is worked out below.
⁴²#61;2#123;(2#123;(#123;2²#125;)#125;)#125;
 #61;2#123;(#123;2⁴#125;)#125;
 #61;2#123;16#125;
 #61;64,536

1982 May, Rudy Rucker, “All the Numbers”, in Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite, Boston, Mass.; Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg: Birkhäuser, →ISBN, page 69:

Repeated exponentiation—called tetration—is so rare that a shorthand for it is hardly worth the trouble, appealing only to research mathematicians. Most professional engineers and scientists never encounter tetration, and the shorthand for it is seldom taught anywhere but in mathematics departments. But it doesn't stop there, and for the almost-unheard-of "multiple tetration" there is yet a stronger cousin operation, waiting in the wings.

1993, Alexander Humez, Nicholas Humez, Joseph Maguire, “One”, in Zero to Lazy Eight: The Romance of Numbers, New York, N.Y.: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 39:

Tetration is usually symbolized with a number drawn to the upper left of another number, as opposed to the upper right used for exponents. Let's look at an example: what is 2 tetrated to the 4th? We would draw this as a 2 with a little 4 to the upper left side: ⁴². This is equivalent to 2#123;2#123;2²

2016, Erik Seligman, “Simple Surprises”, in Math Mutation Classics: Exploring Interesting, Fun and Weird Corners of Mathematics, New York, N.Y.: Apress, Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISBN, page 11:

(arithmetic) The arithmetic operator consisting of repeated exponentiation, by analogy with exponentiation being repeated multiplication and multiplication being repeated addition, ᵇᵃ denoting a to the power of a to the power of … to the power of a, in which a appears b times.


tetravalent

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tetravalent.wav

(chemistry) Having an atomic valence of 4.


quartile

From Middle French quartil, from Medieval Latin quartilus.

(statistics) Any of the three points that divide an ordered distribution into four parts, each containing a quarter of the population.

This school is ranked in the first quartile.

The Department for Transport's National Travel Survey shows that workers in the lowest income quartile are twice as likely to use public transport.

2021 July 28, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Confusion and dissent over face mask requirements: Reaction to the Guidance: British Safety Council”, in RAIL, number 936, page 6:

(statistics) Any one of the four groups so divided.


quadrathlon

(sports) A contest involving four successive events, usually swimming, kayaking, cycling, and running.


tetrathlon

/təˈtɹæθlɒn/

(sports) A contest with four successive events, usually showjumping, swimming, running and pistol shooting.


tetrarchy

From Latin tetrarchia, from Ancient Greek τετραρχία (tetrarkhía), from τετρα- (tetra-, “four”) + -αρχία (-arkhía, “-archy: rule”), equivalent to tetra- + -archy.

Constantius was not born to the purple and Maximianus was the only original member of the First Tetrarchy from whom Constantine could satisfactorily derive his rule.

1996, Sam Lieu, “2: Constantine's "Pagan" Vision: The anonymous panegyric on Constantine (310), Pan. Lat. VII(6)”, in Samuel N. C. Lieu, Dominic Montserrat, editors, From Constantine to Julian: Pagan and Byzantine Views: A Source History, published 2003, page 66:

The abdication of Diocletian and Maximian in 305, whether long-planned or just the product of the senior emperor's recent ill health, created a second Tetrarchy, in which the dominant figure should have been Galerius.

2010, Roger Collins, Early Medieval Europe, 300-1000, 3rd edition, page 16:

His imperial reorganization saw authority divided between four rulers, the Tetrarchy, to oversee the recovery.

2015, David M. Gwynn, chapter I, in Christianity in the Later Roman Empire: A Sourcebook, page 15:

(politics) A government where power is shared by four people, especially (historical) the Herodian tetrarchy established in Judea after the death of Herod and the Tetrarchy of Diocletian which ruled the Roman Empire in the years 293-313.


quadruple double

Norwegian Bokmål: firdobbel-dobbel

(basketball) The achievement of a two-digit number of any four of points scored, assists, rebounds, blocks, or steals in a single game.


quadrangle

/ˈkwɒdˌɹæŋ.ɡəl/

From Old French quadrangle, from Late Latin quadrangulum.

(geometry) A geometric shape with four angles and four straight sides; a four-sided polygon.


quadrivium

en-noun

quadrivium (plural quadriviums or quadrivia)

From Medieval Latin quadrivium (“the four mathematical studies”), from Latin quattuor (“four”) + via (“road”).

lbor

Coordinate term: trivium

(education, historical) The higher division of the seven liberal arts in the Middle Ages, composed of geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music.


tetrad

From Ancient Greek τετράς (tetrás), analysable as tetra- + -ad.

Religious movements and cults are often founded on a tetrad of elements: a prophet, a prophecy, a book, and a revelation.

2010, Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies, Fourth Estate (2011), page 177:

(biology) Two pairs of sister chromatids (a dyad pair) aligned in a certain way and often on the equatorial plane during the meiosis process.

(biology) A group of four haploid and immature pollen grains in tetrahedral fashion produced by meiotic microsporogenesis.

They took figures for the abundance of invasive weeds mapped according to the normal grid unit of the 'hectad', or 10 × 10 km square, and then looked at how abundant these species were mapped at a much finer scale – in 'tetrads', or 2 × 2 km squares, inside these hectads.

2010, Richard Mabey, Weeds: How Vagabond Plants Gatecrashed Civilisation and Changed the Way We Think about Nature, London: Profile Books, →ISBN:

(cartography) A unit of land area of two by two (that is, four) square kilometres.

differential geometry
differential geometry

(mathematics) A group of four basis vectors for a four-dimensional manifold in differential geometry.

(music) A chord comprised of four notes; a tetrachord.


quadripartite

From Latin quadripartītus (“divided into four parts”).

der

Involving four parties or participants; four-party.


quarta

From Portuguese quarta, from Latin quartus (“fourth”), q.v., in reference to the units making up one-fourth of the alqueire (“Portuguese bushel”) or arrantel (“Portuguese pound”). Doublet of quart, quater, and cuaderon.

(historical) A traditional Portuguese unit of dry measure, equal to 3.2–4.8 L in different 19th-century contexts.


quartic

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-quartic.wav

(mathematics) An algebraic equation or function of the fourth degree.


quadrature

en-noun

quadrature (countable and uncountable, plural quadratures)

/ˈkwɑd.ɹəˌt͡ʃʊɚ/

When the Moon is in quadrature, it appears in the sky as a half-moon.

(astronomy) A situation in which the directions of two celestial bodies (or a celestial body and the Sun) form a right angle from the perspective of the observer.


quatrain

Example:

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night,

Has flung the Stone that puts the stars to flight:

And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught

The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of light.

The menu card was designed by Mr. Arthur Hacker, and further enriched by some charming verses in Omarian quatrains from Mr. Le Gallienne, who read them to a sympathetic audience.

1894 December 26, The Sketch, London, page 396, column 1:


4to (countable and uncountable, plural 4tos)

From Latin quārtō, ablative case singular of quārtus (“fourth”).

(paper) Abbreviation of quarto, a paper size.

(printing) Abbreviation of quarto, a corresponding book size.


quadrennial

Borrowed from Latin quadriennium (“four-year period”), from quattuor (“four”) + annus (“year”). By surface analysis, quadr- + -ennial.

The quadrennial election of Chief Magistrate has passed off with less than the usual excitement.

1852, Millard Fillmore, State of the Union Address:


quadrennial

International rowing's elite tend to think in terms of quadrennials — the four-year cycle between Olympic Games — but the addition of the light women's double to Olympic program prior to the 1996 Atlanta Games has also brought distinct eras to the event.

2002, Rowing News, volume 9, number 14, page 20:


quadrireme

During three decades of peace the Venetian battle fleet had stagnated, but soon, once again, reserve galleys were pushing out of the Arsenal. A colossal quadrireme constructed by the scholar-turned-shipwright Vettor Fausto was loaded with batteries of cannon.

1980, Colin Thubron, Seafarers: The Venetians, page 121:

(history) a galley with four banks of oars, each rowed by two oarsmen.


foursome

The fired-up foursome takes itself very seriously, singing politically charged lyrics, which, in the tradition of Strife and Damnation AD, are strategically placed in the middle of slamming, moshable breakdowns.

1999, CMJ New Music Report, volume 59, number 631, page 28:

And Ms. Davies’s 7,000-square-foot guesthouse, the only building from the original estate to survive, is already a favorite among card-playing foursomes and others who want to lounge on the second-story deck and watch dolphins bob in the whitecapped waves.

2009 August 30, Laura M. Holson, “A Dip Into Hollywood”, in The New York Times:

Also, since the players teed off simultaneously, the infamous "shotgun start," with several foursomes at each tee box, the tournaments ran notoriously slow.

2011 October, Mike Nettleton, Shotgun Start, Krill Press, →ISBN:

A group of four, a quartet or a game (such as golf) played by four players, especially by two teams of two.


fardel

A clipped form of Middle English ferthendel (literally “fourth part”), equivalent to fourth + deal. Cognate with Dutch vierendeel (“a fourth part, quarter”), German Viertel (“a quarter, fourth”), Danish fjerdedel (“a quarter”), Swedish fjärdedel (“a fourth, quarter”).

cog

oxgang (2 fardels & for larger divisions)

a much smaller division of land making up 1⁄4 acre

I... bought a Farthel of Bread and a Mutckin of Ale.

c. 1666, W. Sutherland in R. Wodrow's The history of the sufferings of the Church of Scotland, from the Restauration to the Revolution, volume I, Appendix: page 101

third (1+1⁄3 quarters & for smaller subdivisions)

fifth (4⁄5 of a quarter & for smaller subdivisions)


quadrilogy

From quadri- + -logy, by analogy with trilogy.


four o'clock

Any of several plants, of the genus Mirabilis, whose funnel-shaped flowers open in late afternoon.


quadruplication

en-noun

quadruplication (countable and uncountable, plural quadruplications)


Four-Corner

A method of encoding Chinese characters using four numerical digits per character (in some situations, an additional digit is used).


Fourth of July

/ˌfɔːθ‿əv d͡ʒʊˈlaɪ/

/ˌfɔɹθ‿əv d͡ʒəˈlaɪ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Fourth of July.wav

The proper noun is probably derived from the phrase “the fourth day of July”. The common noun is derived from the proper noun.

And the Ohio State Journal reports that “it was the hottest, quietest, and safest Fourth of July that Columbus ever had. The firecracker, the gun, and the cannon did not appear, and so there was not an injured or mangled boy or dead body anywhere yesterday as a result of powder patriotism. What a happy condition for the city to be in! What a marked difference from other days, after the Fourth. It seems that these ear splitting and soul stabbing Fourth of Julys are ended; and it is well; it is very well.”

1911 July 16, “A Saner Fourth”, in The Chicago Sunday Tribune, volume LXX, number 29, Chicago, Ill.: The Tribune Company, Metropolitan Section, page 4, column 3:

MARY went in to the frail little mother and told her the news through the cotton wool in both ears. Mrs. Davis had no difficulty hearing, so beautifully penetrating is good news. The relief in her pale little face “choked” Mary. / “My dear! You are an angel, there in that white robe! All you haven’t got is wings! If you knew—if anybody but me could know the tortures Fourth of Julys are to me.[…]”

1921 July 2, Annie Hamilton Donnell, “Do-As-You-Please Day: A Fourth of July Story”, in The Christian Herald […], volume 44, number 27, New York, N.Y.: Graham Patterson, page 469, column 1:

Our Fourth of Julys are sounding different, too. Come to one of our barbeques and you might hear “Praise the Lord and Pass the Metamucil” or that ol’ patriotic favorite “Let Eardrums Ring.”

2005, Martha Bolton, “Season’s Greetings”, in Growing Your Own Turtleneck… and Other Benefits of Aging, Bloomington, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers, →ISBN, page 98:

The national holiday of Independence Day in the United States, celebrated on the fourth day in July to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in 1776.


foursquare

en-adj

foursquare (comparative more foursquare, superlative most foursquare)

more foursquare (comparative)
most foursquare (superlative)

From Middle English foure square; equivalent to four + square.

From the foursquare royal tower on the city's eastern edge to the Dominican monastery of the Blackfriars in the west, its skyline was a forest of spires and belltowers.

2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 41:

Out there in the dark the city looked foursquare and massive.

2020, Kim Stanley Robinson, chapter 7, in The Ministry for the Future, Little, Brown Book Group, →ISBN:

(cryptography) Pertaining to a four-square cipher.

Pertaining to the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.


foursquare

en-noun

foursquare (countable and uncountable, plural foursquares)

(uncountable) Alternative form of four square

(countable, cryptography) A four-square cipher.

(countable, architecture, US) A boxy style of domestic architecture with four rooms to a floor, one of which is usually a stair hall.


quadrennium

quadrennium (plural quadrenniums or quadrennia)

quadrenniums (plural)
quadrennia (plural)

From Late Latin quadrennium, from Latin quadriennium, from quadriennis (“4-year”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns).

A period of 4 years, particularly (historical) the sets of four years in the ancient Egyptian and Greek calendars.


fourscore

[…] I know every life is equally sacred, but that is a thought, another thought, I mean, all these valuable people who aren’t going to have their normal fourscore as it is now, these people aren’t going to be replaced, and it’s such a loss to the culture.

1986 November 24, Susan Sontag, “The Way We Live Now”, in The New Yorker:

(idiomatic) A full-length life, reckoned as eighty years.


tetraphobia

Custom of avoiding the number four (4) commonly seen in East Asian countries in which the words for "4" and "death" are paronymous or homophonous.


quartering

(engineering) At right angles, as the cranks of a locomotive, which are in planes forming a right angle with each other.


four-flusher

From the practice of attempting to pass off four cards of the same suit, and a fifth of perhaps the same color, as a flush in poker.

That four-flusher shoot himself? Not a chance.

1929, Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest, New York: Knopf, →OL:

(slang, Canada, US) A lowly, disreputable cheat or fraudster, especially at cards, especially a dull or unimaginative one.


four-on-the-floor

(motor vehicles) A four-speed manual transmission whose gearshift lever is mounted beside the driver on the floor of the vehicle.


fourthly

Fourthly, I have made an effort to call the attention of the reader to the pertinent literature.

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page viii:

Fourthly, when all equilibria are unstable and complex endogenous fluctuations arise, the LAW policy reduces the amplitude of fluctuations but at the expense of larger average deviations from the targets.

2024, Anufriev, Lamantia, Radi, Tichy, “Leaning against the wind in the New Keynesian model with heterogeneous expectations”, in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, →DOI:


quadruplex

From Latin quadruplex (“fourfold, quadruple”), from quattuor (“four”) + plico (“fold”).


fourpeat

en-verb

fourpeat (third-person singular simple present fourpeats, present participle fourpeating, simple past and past participle fourpeated)

fourpeats (present singular third-person)
fourpeating (participle present)
fourpeated (participle past)
fourpeated (past)

Blend of four + repeat. Compare threepeat (to rhyme with repeat).

(US, slang) To win something four times consecutively.


four-peat

four-peat (third-person singular simple present four-peats, present participle four-peating, simple past and past participle four-peated)

four-peats (present singular third-person)
four-peating (participle present)
four-peated (participle past)
four-peated (past)


quatrefoil

/kætɹəˌfɔɪl/

From Old French quatrefoil, from quatre (“four”) + foil (“leaf”).

It was a narrow, gravelled island we had to lie on, guarded by glazed brick chimneys and, running along the sides, a prickly little gothic fence of iron finials and terracotta quatrefoils.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 142:

(architecture) A symmetrical shape that forms the overall outline of four partially-overlapping circles of the same diameter.


four-in-hand

‘I must see him!’ he exclaimed; but at that moment the Duke of Berwick's four-in-hand came between, and when it had left the space clear, the carriage had swept out of the Park.

1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vintage, published 2007, page 62:

Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

A carriage drawn by four horses controlled by one driver.

He wore a black frock coat and light trousers, his cravat a gray four-in-hand.

2013, A Scott Berg, Wilson, Berkley, published 2014, page 293:

(chiefly US) A slip knot with one end hanging in front of the other; a simple necktie.


fourfold

From Middle English fourfold, fourefold, from Old English fēowerfeald. Equivalent to four + -fold. Cognate with Dutch viervoud, Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍂𐍆𐌰𐌻𐌸𐍃 (fidurfalþs).


four score and seven years ago

en-adv

four score and seven years ago (not comparable)

/ˈfɔː skɔː‿ɹən ˌsɛvən jɪəz əˌɡəʊ/

/ˈfɔɹ skɔɹ ən ˌsɛvən jɪɹz əˌɡoʊ/

En-au-four score and seven years ago.ogg

Literally, “87 years ago” (score sense: “group of 20”) the beginning of the Gettysburg Address made on November 19, 1863, by United States President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The widespread familiarity of Lincoln’s address, the unusual and poetic wording, and its status as the first words of the speech have caused the phrase to enter the public consciousness.

It was established four score and seven years ago, and since that time its activities have been intertwined with the internal development of the Nation itself.

1936 April 16, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Address at the Dedication of the New Department of the Interior Building:

I imagined momentarily that it was four score and seven years ago, that I had just been brought forth from my mother […]

2010 December 23, Phillip Roth, “Prologue”, in The Great American Novel, →ISBN, page 21:

Four score and seven years ago, I began writing an annual letter to be enclosed in my Christmas cards.

2012 February 20, Vicky DeCoster, “The Letter”, in The Wacky World of Womanhood, →ISBN, page 93:

(idiomatic, often humorous) Used (sometimes sarcastically) to indicate that a past event being mentioned is particularly important: a long time ago; many years ago.


quadrate

en-adj

quadrate (comparative more quadrate, superlative most quadrate)

more quadrate (comparative)
most quadrate (superlative)

From Middle English quadrat, quadrate, from Latin quadrātus (“square”), past participle of quadrō (“to make four-cornered, square, put in order, intransitive be square”), from quadra (“a square”), later quadrus (“square”), from quattuor (“four”).

Figures, some round, some triangle, some quadrate.

Having four equal sides, the opposite sides parallel, and four right angles; square.


quadrate

From Middle English quadrat, quadrate, from Latin quadrātum. Doublet of quadrat; compare also quadrant (“square or quadrangle”).

At which command, the powers militant
That stood for heav'n, in mighty quadrate joyn'd.

1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 61-62:

(geometry) A plane surface with four equal sides and four right angles; a square; hence, figuratively, anything having the outline of a square.

(astrology) An aspect of the heavenly bodies in which they are distant from each other 90°, or the quarter of a circle; quartile.


quadrigeminy

A form of cardiac arrhythmia in which four beats are followed by a pause.


quadruplexing

The transmission of four separate messages on a single cable.


Fourth Reich

Are you listening, sir? Or did your mind drift / to the next country in your axis, / to all the cool bomb drops you get to call: / delivery fresh from the Fourth Reich to y’all?

2005, “Special Delivery”, in MC Frontalot (music), Nerdcore Rising:

From their hideaways in South America, it would have been easy for the Nazis to slink away down to New Swabia and establish the Fourth Reich.

2009, Monte Cook, “Everything's Better with Nazis”, in The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

Hypothetical resurrection of Nazi Germany (Third Reich).

الرَّايْخ الرَابِع

Hypothetical resurrection of the Third Reich


fourpence

A former British silver coin, worth four pence.


quadrinomial

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-quadrinomial.wav

Consisting of four names or parts or terms.


quadrinomial

(algebra) An expression consisting of four terms.


Sf

a book size one sixty-fourth of the size of a standard uncut sheet of paper (less 7.5 cm (3") in height)


tetracyclic

(medicine) Describing any pharmaceutical based upon tetracycline


vicesimo-quarto

From Latin ablatives of vīcēsimus (“twentieth”) and quartus (“fourth”).

(paper) A paper size, (2.5-3.3" x 5"-6.25"), one twenty-fourth of a standard uncut flat sheet.

(printing) A book size, (2.5"-3.3" x 5"-6.25"), corresponding to the paper size.


sexagesimo-quarto

From Latin ablatives of sexāgēsimus (“sixtieth”) and quartus (“fourth”).

(paper) A paper size, (1.87"-2.5" x 2.5"-3.125"), one sixty-fourth of a standard uncut flat sheet.


quartan

From Anglo-Norman quartaine, Old French quartaine, from Latin quartāna (short for febris quartana), noun use of feminine form of quartānus (“recurring every four days”), from quartus (“fourth”).

an Egyptian at Alexandria, whose quartan resisted the strongest applications of European physic, was effectually healed by the actual cautery, which a certain Arab Shaykh applied to the crown of his head.

1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover, published 1964, page 54:

(medicine, historical) A fever whose symptoms recur every four days.


quartan

Pork, of all meats, is[…]naught for queasy stomachs, insomuch that frequent use of it may breed a quartan ague.

1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, page 218:

(medicine) Recurring every four days; especially in designating a form of malaria with such symptoms.


methera

From Brythonic numerals. Compare to Welsh mhedwerydd, nasal mutation of pedwerydd.

(Cumbria) four in sheep counting of Northern England.


mether

(dialect) Four in the old counting system of Northern England.


quadriga

en-noun

quadriga (plural quadrigae or quadrigas)

From Latin quadrīgae, literally "four yoked", from quattuor (“four”) + iugum (“yoke”).

(historical) A team of four horses, or sometimes other animals, especially as used in chariot racing.


Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (canonical)

en-au-Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.ogg

"This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country. The heroes of my field have slain one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. While the heroes of your field gathered in the desert to create a new one."

2015 May 4, Randall Munroe, xkcd (webcomic), Degree-Off:

(biblical) Four beings in Revelation 6:1–8 that bring about the Apocalypse, each embodied as a horseman riding a different-colored horse that represents a different aspect of the Apocalypse.

אַרְבַּעַת פָּרָשֵׁי הָאָפּוֹקָלִיפְּסָה

náhodeesdzáago dįltʼéego łį́į́ʼ bił níjééʼ


twenty-fourmo

Vicesimo-quarto (as a paper size in printing).


sixty-fourmo

sexagesimo-quarto (as a paper size in printing).


quatrumvirate

From alteration of quadrumvirate or quartumvirate.

For after all Sweden can have no interest in allowing a quatrumvirate to put hands on the whole of Europe.

1910, Claude-François Méneval, Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Court of the First Empire:

(obsolete) Alternative form of quattuorvirate: rule by four people.


cuarta

From Spanish cuarta (“fourth”). Doublet of quart, quarter, and cuarto, &c.

(historical) A traditional Galician unit of dry measure, a quarter-ferrado equivalent to about 3–4.5 L depending on the substance measured.


tetrapla

From Ancient Greek τετραπλᾶ (tetraplâ), neuter plural of τετραπλοῦς (tetraploûs, “fourfold”), from τετρα- (tetra-, “tetra-: four”) + -πλόος (-plóos, “-fold”).

A text presented in four parallel versions, especially (historical) the version of the Bible presented in such a fashion by Origen.


quadruple bluff

quadruple bluff (plural quadruple bluffs)

The Reason it is not interpretable may be that while we can appreciate the difference between sincerity and a bluff, and even between a bluff and a double bluff, our minds aren’t yet rigged up to appreciate the difference between, say, a triple bluff and a quadruple bluff.

1998, J Haiman, Talk is Cheap, Oxford university press, →ISBN:

I have been given the topic of lust and immediately I wonder what it is that you are expecting, and as I wonder I try and think should I go for bluff, double bluff, triple bluff or quadruple bluff.

2008, 28 February, Rt Revd Tim Thornton, Bishop of Sherborne, Lent lecture given to Salisbury Cathedral

everything I was told as if it was at least a double-bluff and more likely a triple- or quadruple-bluff

2008, 4 November, J Beresford, TV Scoop review

Clearly, Britain's only hope is that the whole story is part of an elaborate, black-ops quadruple bluff designed to lull Johnny Foreigner into a false sense of security over the apparently shambolic nature of our national defence system.

2008 September 23, L Mangan, “The spy who came unstuck on national TV”, in The Guardian:

The next bluff in sequence after a double bluff and a triple bluff


quadruple star

quadruple star system
quadruple star system

(astronomy) Four stars which form a stellar system, such that they orbit the point of equilibrium of their gravitational fields; a quadruple star system.


Fourth World

After First World, Second World, and Third World.

Collectively, peoples living nomadic, pastoral, hunter-gatherer or other ways of life outside the modern industrial norm.


tetracycle

From Ancient Greek τετράκυκλος (tetrákuklos, “four-wheeled”), equivalent to tetra- + cycle.

der

(organic chemistry) Any organic compound, containing four rings, related to tetracycline


tetrastich

From Latin tetrastichon, from neuter of Ancient Greek τετράστιχον (tetrástikhon, “having four rows”), from τετρα- (tetra-, “four”) + στίχος (stíkhos, “row”).


The d4 can be used to generate 25% incremental probabilities, random numbers from 1 to 4, with +1 it generates a linear 2-5, etc.

1979, Gary Gygax, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide, Lake Geneva, WI: TSR Games, page 10:


fourth-degree

At the fourth level of some system, particularly:

(of burns) The most severe level of damage, typically involving major damage to muscles, tendons, and ligaments as well as the skin.


frice

As if to continue the sequence once, twice, thrice with four.

[…] not once or twice or thrice or frice, but many times, and always under awkward conditions.

1999, John R. Erickson, Gerald L. Holmes, Every dog has his day:

[…] and wince, she says, and twice and thrice and frice and fice and sice and seven-up sits the Star of the County Down […]

2001, Benedict Kiely, The collected stories of Benedict Kiely:

Three cheers for scratch: Hip hip huzzah! Hip hip huzzah! Hip hip huz-ZAH! Not only do I get to see it now, but I got to say huzzah thrice! Well, I guess now it's frice.

2001 February 7, "Joe", “Linnell finds the camera!”, in alt.music.tmbg (Usenet), message-ID <95sa2g$debts$1@ID-50051.news.dfncis.de>:

I've been caught out once or twice or thrice or frice.

2001 August 4, "Alan T Gower", “Seconds from Disaster”, in uk.rec.motorcycles (Usenet), message-ID <3b6bac29$0$3761$cc9e4d1f@news.dial.pipex.com>:

Our sacred boost is now finally perfected! As powerful as can be... and FRICE can you use it!

2015, “Chumbucket”, in Mad Max, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment:

(rare, nonstandard, humorous) four times


Frozen Four

These two teams have an amazing number of Frozen Fours between them.

(ice hockey, US, informal) An appearance in the Frozen Four.


quadrisect

en-verb

quadrisect (third-person singular simple present quadrisects, present participle quadrisecting, simple past and past participle quadrisected)

quadrisects (present singular third-person)
quadrisecting (participle present)
quadrisected (participle past)
quadrisected (past)


fourness

There is such a thing as threeness, or fourness, and the threeness of three cannot be added to the fourness of four.

2005, John Dillon, The Heirs of Plato: A Study of the Old Academy (347-274 BC):


tessara-

From the Ancient Greek τέσσᾰρᾰ (téssără), the neuter plural and combining form of τέσσᾰρες (téssăres, “four”); compare tetra-.


tetrastyle

(architecture) A building (especially a portico) that has four columns


tetragram

/ˈtɛ.tɹəˌɡɹæm/

In the Taixuanjing, a sequence of four lines, each of which may be unbroken, broken once, or broken twice. Each sequence is interpreted as an element of the sets of solid lines (⚊ for Heaven), once-broken lines (⚋ for Earth) and twice-broken lines (𝌀 for Man) formed by combinations of four monograms (two digrams or bigrams, in other words) in the divination of the Taixuanjing.


four F's

A set of four basic biological instincts: feeding, fighting, fleeing, and fucking.


last four

Victoria Azarenka advanced to her first Grand Slam semi-final with a late-night victory over Tamira Paszek under the Centre Court roof at Wimbledon....
The Belarusian takes on eighth seed Petra Kvitova in the last four.
Whoever wins that goes on to play Maria Sharapova or Sabine Lisicki in Saturday's final - and Azarenka will be full of confidence having beaten Paszek.

2011 June 28, David Ornstein, “Wimbledon 2011: Victoria Azarenka beats Tamira Paszek in quarters”, in BBC Sport:


quadrifid

From Latin quadrifidus, from quadri- + -fidus, from findere (“to split”).

a quadrifid perianth
a quadrifid leaf

Divided, or deeply cleft, into four parts.


quaternity

en-noun

quaternity (countable and uncountable, plural quaternities)

From quatern + -ity, from Latin quaternitās, from quaternus (“fourfold, in fours”).


quaternate

quaternate leaves

Composed of, or arranged in, sets of four.


foursies

A call in any children's game, such as jacks, where four actions must be performed.


fourling

Every 67th lying-in woman has twins, every 5333rd has trillings, and only every 150,000th has fourlings.

1842, “Sweden as it is; Moral, Political and Statistical”, in The Foreign Quarterly Review, volume 28, number 55, page 449:

this breed is prominent for its remarkable fecundity and yield of milk; as a rule, this goat litters once a year and drops 2 kids; occasionally trillings and fourlings.

1922, The Goat World, Devoted to the Upbuilding of the Goat Industry, page 67:

If the two or the four first cells into which the animal ovum divides during the process of so-called cleavage be separated from one another, then each of these cells grows into a small but complete organism. Conversely, if two ova be caused to amalgamate with parallel axes, the result is a "giant". What is the meaning of this? It is, that the material which, if left undisturbed, would have grown into one, can grow into many-into twins or into fourlings. And similarly the material destined for many may furnish one only.

1929, Hans Dreisch (W.H. Johnston), Man and the Universe, page 93:

(obsolete, rare) One of four children born at the same birth; a quadruplet.

(crystallography) A compound or twin crystal consisting of four individuals.


tetraptote

From Latin tetraptōtum, from Ancient Greek τετράπτωτος (tetráptōtos).

A noun which is found in one case only, is called a Monoptote; if found in two cases, a Diptote; if in three, a Triptote; if in four, a Tetraptote; and if in five, a Pentaptote.

1836, Ethan Allen Andrews, A Grammar of the Latin Language for Use of Schools and Colleges:


ménage à quatre

ménage à quatre (plural ménages à quatre)

From ménage à trois (“household whereby three people live as lovers; sexual act involving three people”), from French ménage à trois. The number trois (“three”) is replaced by quatre (“four”).

A sexual act involving four people; a foursome.


preantepenult

The last syllable but three (of a word or other utterance); the fourth-to-last syllable.


fourgie

I've heard you've had a fourgie with the Stern Brothers.

1997, Bruce LaBruce, Bruce LaBruce: ride, queer, ride!, link:

Homoeroticism glistened across the screen: nude rugby scrums, gorgeous gym queens crunching their abs in the gym and sailors in Gaveston's bed engaged in some sort of threesome or fourgie.

2009, Niall Richardson, The queer cinema of Derek Jarman: critical and cultural readings, link:

(slang) An act of group sex between four people; a foursome.


fourpenny nail

(dated) A nail 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) in length.


Olympiad

Hadrian
International Mathematical Olympiad
Olympiad
Summer Olympics
Winter Olympics
inclusive counting

From the plural forms Olimpiades, Olympiades, and Olympiadiz of Middle English Olimpias and Olympias (“ancient Olympic Games, 4-year period between these games, intense battle or competition”) from Middle French Olympiade and Old French Olympiade (“ancient Olympic games, 4-year period between these games”), from Latin Olympias (“4-year period between Olympic Games”) whose genitive form was Olympiados or Olympiadis), from Ancient Greek Ὀλυμπῐᾰ́ς (Olumpĭắs, “ancient Olympic Games, 4-year period between these games”) whose plural form was Ὀλυμπῐᾰ́δες (Olumpĭắdes), from Ὀλυμπῐ́ᾱ (Olumpĭ́ā, “Olympia”), the town in ancient Greece where the games were held, + -ᾰ́ς (-ắs, a suffix forming feminine adjectives or nouns), from either Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olŭ́mpĭos, “of or related to Mount Olympus, Olympian, the Olympian Zeus”) or Ὄλῠμπος (Ólŭmpos, “Mount Olympus”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns).
The use of olympiad for academic competitions aspiring to the level of the Olympic Games was first popularized by the International Mathematical Olympiad, a calque of its Romanian name Olimpiada Internațională de Matematică.

Olimpiade

period between celebrations of the ancient or modern Olympic Games

olympiade

celebration of the ancient or modern Olympic Games

olympiad

alternative case, typically in generic uses

Ancient sources variously dated the founding of Rome to the 38th year before the first Olympiad, the third or fourth year of the sixth Olympiad, the first year of the seventh or eighth Olympiad, or the fourth year of the 12th Olympiad.

Now was bright Hero weary of the day,
Thought an Olympiad in Leanders ſtay.

1598, George Chapman, “Fifth Sestyad”, in Christopher Marlo[w]e, George Chapman, Hero and Leander: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Richard Hawkins: […], published 1629, →OCLC:

Olympiad. 42. about the yeare of Rome 142. ſhee [the planet Venus] is bigger then all the other ſtarres, and ſo cleare that (ſome-times) her beames make a ſhadowe.

1610, Saint Augustine, “Of Certaine Starres that the Pagans Call Their Gods”, in J[ohn] H[ealey], transl., St. Augustine, of the Citie of God: […], [London]: […] George Eld, →OCLC, book VII, page 274:

Now therefore ſeeing that the firſt yeare of Cyrus his Monarchie (which was the laſt of the ſixtieth Olympiad, and the two hundredth and fortieth yeare from the inſtitution of thoſe games by Iphitus) followed the laſt of the ſeuentie yeares, of the captiuitie of Iuda, and deſolation of the Land of Iſrael; manifeſt it is, that we muſt reckon back thoſe ſeuentie yeares, and one hundred threeſcore and ten yeares more, the laſt which paſſed vnder the Kings of Iuda, to finde the firſt of theſe Olympiads; which by this accompt is the one and fiftieth of Vzzia, as wee haue alreadie noted.

1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], “Of Vzzia”, in The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, 1st book, §. V (Of the Olympiads, and the Time when They Beganne), page 576:

The moſt Antient and Renowned Epoch uſed by the Heathens is that of the Olympiads or Olympick Games, which were inſtituted by one Iphitus, in the Fields of Olympia, a City or Town of the Region Elis in the Peloponneſe; and which laſt whereof fell on the Full Moon, which was the next after the Summer Solſtice. Theſe Games were celebrated every four Years, that is, there were three Years between the Years wherein the next preceding and the next following Olympiad was celebrated. Hence by a compleat Olympiad, is denoted the Space of four Years; the Year wherein the Olympiad was celebrated, being ſtiled the firſt Year of the ſaid Olympiad, and ſo on.

1736, Edward Wells, “Of Epoch’s or Æra’s; and Especially of the Æra of Year of Christ, the Æra of the Olympiads, and the Æra of the Building of Rome”, in The Young Gentleman’s Astronomy, Chronology, and Dialling, […], 4th edition, London: […] James, John, and Paul Knapton, […], →OCLC, paragraph 4, pages 64–65:

When he was fourteen, he went to work on the starcher. […] It marked an era. It was a machine Olympiad, a thing to date from.

1911 January, Jack London, “The Apostate”, in When God Laughs and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 55:

The Games of the XXXII Olympiad is going ahead in Tokyo a year late, despite concerns about coronavirus. […] The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Japanese government are pressing ahead with the XXXII Olympiad after it was delayed last summer – albeit in a very different manner from usual.

2021 July 12, Natalie Merchant, “Explainer: The Tokyo Olympics by Numbers”, in World Economic Forum, archived from the original on 2021-08-02:

Emperor Naruhito was caught in a conundrum when it came to wording in his speech in Japanese to declare the 2020 Tokyo Olympics open during the July 23 Opening Ceremony at the National Stadium. […] The official English version for the Tokyo Olympics was: "I declare open the Games of Tokyo celebrating the 32nd Olympiad of the modern era." […] Following discussions among central government officials and the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, it was decided to allow Naruhito to use "kinensuru" for celebrating. The term has more of a nuance of marking or commemorating an important occasion.

2021 July 24, Tatsuro Sugiura, “Emperor in bind over use of ‘celebrate’ for Tokyo Olympiad”, in The Asahi Shimbun, Osaka: The Asahi Shimbun Company, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-07-30:

A four-year period, particularly (historical) those based on Hippias's computations of the ancient Olympic Games which placed Coroebus's footrace victory in 776 BCE and (sports) those based on the modern Summer Olympic Games first held in 1896.

Victors at the ancient Olympiads only won an olive wreath but were usually freed from paying taxes for the remainder of their life, but modern Olympians have frequently needed to pay taxes on the market value of their gold, silver, or bronze medals.

It was their [the priests of Jupiter Olympius's] Buſineſs, alſo not only to regiſter the Names of the Victors in the ſeveral Games, with other Matters relating to them, but alſo whatever occurr'd remarkable, during the Intervals between the Celebration of every Olympiad.

1707, Thomas Hind, “Book II. The Second Period, from the Taking of Troy, to the Battle of Marathon, Containing the Space of 700 Years.”, in The History of Greece. […], London: […] S. and J. Sprint, A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, Tim[othy] Childe, and Rob[ert] Knaplock, →OCLC, page 124:

Strabo […] makes Corœbus the firſt Victor at the firſt Olympiad of Iphitus; who, he ſaies, was the Reſtorer of them. This Olympiad was in the Year before Chriſt 776.

1752, John Jackson, “Of the Origin and Æra of Oracles. [Of the Institution of the Olympic Games.]”, in Chronological Antiquities: Or, The Antiquities and Chronology of the Most Ancient Kingdoms, from the Creation of the World, for the Space of Five Thousand Years. […], volume III, London: Printed for the author; and sold by J. Noon, […], →OCLC, page 340:

The noble and free citizens of Epidaphne being, as they declare, well satisfied of the faith, valor, wisdom, and divinity of their king, […] do think it no more than their duty to invest his brows (in addition to the poetic crown) with the wreath of victory in the foot race—a wreath which it is evident he must obtain at the celebration of the next Olympiad, and which, therefore, they now give him in advance.

1840, Edgar A[llan] Poe, “Epimanes”, in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, published 1840, →OCLC, pages 16–17:

After the distribution of the prizes, the athletes formed for the traditional procession around the Stadion. Louës [i.e., Spyridon Louis], the victor of Marathon, came first, bearing the Greek flag; then the Americans, the Hungarians, the French, the Germans. […] The king announced that the first Olympiad was at an end, and left the Stadion, the band playing the Greek national hymn, and the crowd cheering.

1896 November, Pierre de Coubertin, “The Olympic Games of 1896. […]”, in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume XXXI (New Series; volume LIII overall), number 1, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co.; London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., →OCLC, page 50:

[I]t is the intention of the management of the exposition to make the Olympiad of 1904 the greatest ever held. The first of these modern Olympiads—which are the reproduction of the famous games of Ancient Greece—was held at Athens in 1896, when an American astonished the world by winning the discus-throwing championship. […] The representatives of athletics in America propose that nothing shall be left undone to make this first American Olympiad a phenomenal success.

1903 November 20, “Olympic Games”, in Message from the President of the United States, Transmitting a Statement Showing the Receipts and Disbursements of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company from Date of Incorporation to September 30, 1903, together with a Report Submitted by the Exposition Company Showing Progress Made by the Various Departments of the Exposition (58th Congress, 1st Session, document no. 12), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 58:

1950 marks the twilight of one of the greatest eras of California crew history. Many of the graduating crew men were in the jayvee Poughkeepsie winning boat in 1947; the next year these same men rowed to the eight-oared championship in the 14th Olympiad in England.

1950, “[Athletics] 1950 Varsity”, in Blue and Gold 1950, volume 77, Berkeley, Calif.: Associated Students of the University of California, →OCLC, page 234:

(sports, sometimes proscribed) Synonym of Olympic Games: an instance of the ancient or modern Olympic Games.

Olympic Games

the International Mathematical Olympiad... the Science Olympiad... the International Science Olympiads... the Women's Chess Olympiad...

The Junior Olympiad track and field meet was a major special event with 276 entrants.

1943 November, Margaret King, “Southwest District Association News [California]”, in Mary Wibel, editor, The Journal of Health and Physical Education, volume 14, number 9, Washington, D.C.: American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, →OCLC, page 492, column 1:

Selected competitively from more than 400,000 high school students to represent the United States in the 19th International Mathematical Olympiad in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, July 5–6, an 8-man team emerged victorious over teams from 20 other nations. […] Credited with developing the International Mathematics Olympiad in 1959 is Rumania, the winner that year in competition with Bulgaria, Czechosolvakia, Poland, German Democratic Republic, and Soviet Union. […] The idea of a U.S. Mathematical Olympiad was spawned in 1971 when Prof. Nura D. Turner of SUNY (State University of New York), Albany, authored an article in the American Mathematical Monthly that led in 1972 to the USA Mathematical Olympiad.

1977 May–July, “USA Team Wins over 20 Nations”, in Clarence T. Smith, editor, Army Research and Development, volume 18, number 3, Alexandria, Va.: Development and Engineering Directorate, HQ. U.S. Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 29, column 2:

[…] Kent Howerton led dominance of the initial Motorcycle Olympiad by AMA professional moto-crossers. […] The fans dug it, the bike press agreed, and the Second Annual Motorcycle Olympiad will be held September 16–17 at Saddleback Park in Orange, California. More on the Olympiad in future issues.

1978 June, “Olympiad Set for Second Go”, in Bill Amick, editor, American Motorcyclist, volume 32, number 6, Westerville, Oh.: American Motorcyclist Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34, column 3:

The Prize distribution ceremony of the First National Science Olympiad was held at National Museum Auditorium, New Delhi on October 18. […] The Second National Science Olympiad will be conducted on 28th January 2000.

1999 December, “Miscellaneous”, in Mahendra Jain, editor, Competition Science Vision, volume 2, number 22, Agra, Uttar Pradesh: Mahendra Jain for M/s Pratiyogita Darpan, →OCLC, page 1266, columns 2–3:

The FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2021 will be held between August 13 to September 15, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) announced. Each national federation intending to take part in the Online Olympiad shall confirm its participation by July 31, it said.

2021 July 14, “Second Online Chess Olympiad from August 13, says FIDE”, in The Times of India, Mumbai, Maharashtra: The Times Group, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-08-06:

(by extension, usually preceded by descriptive words) A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success.

奧林匹克 /奥林匹克

high-level competitions in other fields, especially among students


rouf

(slang, crime) A prison sentence of four years.

The number four.
A prison sentence of four years.

(slang, obsolete, money) Four shillings.

I don't want a cockle – I don't want a neuf – I don't want a fat lady or a nevis – I don't want an exis, a flim or a rouf – or a carpet or bottle – These green flip-flops are a phunt a pair! And they've all got to go!

2014, David Eldridge, Market Boy, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 48:

(costermongers) The number four.
(slang, money) Four pounds sterling.

(costermongers) The number four.
(slang, gambling) Odds of four to one.

The betting also began to shift. "Sixpence Ned wins!" cried three or four; "Sixpence he loses!" answered another; "Done!" and up went the halfpence. "Half-a-crown Joe loses!"—"Here you are," answered Joe, but he lost again. "I'll try you a 'gen'" (shilling) said a coster; "And a 'rouf yenap'" (fourpence), added the other. "Say a 'exes'" (sixpence).—"Done!" and the betting continued, till the ground was spotted with silver and halfpence.

1851, Henry Mayhew, “Gambling of Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 17:

"Give me two gen, then, and take the whole bloody tol. I've walked me teef orf afore rouf this mornin', and wot 'ave I got? Two bloody yenneps! I ask yer."

Then the horse trading would begin with the words, from the jobber, of: "What's your size?" […] The broker might reply with the word rouf (a 4,000 share trade, which was a very small order); a score (20,000); a monkey (half a million); or a gorilla (one million shares - a very big order).

2011, Ian Lyall, The Street-Smart Trader, Harriman House Limited, →ISBN, page 11:


en-noun

64mo (usually uncountable, plural 64mos)

39. Reed, C. A., H. F. Harvey, & R. I. Brasher. WESTERN BIRD GUIDE: Birds of the Rockies & West to the Pacific. 286 pgs with index. Color prints throughout. Red fabricoid, with chipped cardboard slipcase. Oblong 64mo. NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1937. Very good condition, with fair case. $21.50 [115273]

2000 April 29, Acorn Books, “FS: 2nd Miscellany of 25 NEW ARRIVALS, Sat., April 29, 2000.”, in rec.arts.books.marketplace (Usenet):

(paper, printing) A size of paper or book: 1.87"-2.5" x 2.5"-3.125".


cuartilla

From Spanish cuartilla, from cuarto and cuarta (“fourth, quarter”) + -illa (“-elle: forming diminutives”), from Latin quartus (“fourth”). Doublet of cuartillo and quartilho.

(historical) A traditional Spanish unit of dry measure, equivalent to about 13.9 L.


four-top

When I walked into Rosie's, I headed for an empty four-top, where I placed my shoulder bag....

(restaurants) A table seating four diners.


Chaturthi

From Sanskrit चतुर्थी (caturthī, “fourth day in a lunar fortnight”).

bor

(Hinduism) The fourth day (tithi) of the lunar fortnight (paksha) in the Hindu calendar.


en-noun

24mo (usually uncountable, plural 24mos)


Big Four

(historical) The four top Allied powers of World War I and their leaders: David Lloyd George of Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy and Woodrow Wilson of the United States, who met at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 at Versailles.


quartilho

From Portuguese quartilho, from quarto (“fourth”) + -ilho (“-elle: forming diminutives”), in reference to its size being one-fourth the canada. Doublet of cuartillo and cuartilla.

(historical, measure) A traditional Portuguese unit of liquid volume, varying in size between 350 and 530 mL.


four-cycle

[…] well-known automobiles will be fitted with two-cycle engines, whereas they are now equipped with four-cycles.

internal combustion engine
internal combustion engine

Any four-stroke cycle, such as the Otto cycle, for an internal combustion engine.


tetrarchic

Tetrarchic rulers were shown wearing them on large gold medallions issued to commemorate their consulships, vicennalias and decennalias.

2016, Carol Shaw, The Development of Early Imperial Dress from the Tetrarchs to the Herakleian Dynasty:

Of or related to a tetrarchy, particularly (historical) the era of Diocletian and his three coemperors in Late Antiquity.


tetranomial

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tetranomial.wav


four-dimensionalism

(philosophy) An ontological position stating that an object's persistence through time is like its extension through space.


quartary

From Latin quārtārius (“quarter-sextarius, quarter-pint”), from quārtus (“fourth”) + -ārius (“-ary: forming adj.”). Equivalent to quart + -ary. Doublet of quartarius.

der

(historical, rare, obsolete) Synonym of quartarius, quarter-sextarius, a Roman unit of liquid measure equivalent to about 0.14 L

quartarius

(historical, rare, obsolete) A Roman unit of mass, one-fourth of a Roman pound.


quartary

From Latin quārtus (“fourth”) + -ary (adjective-forming suffix) within English in place of the correct form quaternary.

(proscribed, obsolete) Synonym of quaternary: Of the fourth rank or order, fourth in a series.


four color theorem

(graph theory) A theorem stating that given any separation of a plane into contiguous regions, producing a figure called a map, no more than four colors are required to color the regions so that no two adjacent regions have the same color (adjacent being defined as two regions sharing a boundary, not counting corners, in which three or more regions share a boundary).


quadrinate

(botany) Having four divisions or leaflets.


tetraeterid

From Late Latin tetraeteris, from Ancient Greek τετραετηρίς (tetraetērís), from τετρα- (tetra-, “four”) + ἔτος (étos, “year”).

Alternative form of tetraeteris: A four-year period, particularly (historical) those used in ancient Egyptian and Greek astronomical calculations.


tetraeteris

Synonym of quadrennium: A four-year period, particularly (historical) those used in ancient Egyptian and Greek astronomical calculations.


quartumvirate

From quārtus (“fourth”) + the latter part of triumvirate, possibly originally as a variant of quatrumvirate, itself a variant of quadrumvirate.

Alternative form of quattuorvirate: rule by four people.


tetradarchy

From Ancient Greek τετραδαρχία (tetradarkhía), from τετράς (tetrás, “tetrad, group of four”) + -αρχία (-arkhía, “-archy: rule”).

uder

(politics) Alternative form of tetrarchy: rule by four people.


quattuorvirate

From Latin quattuorvirātus, from quattuorvir + -ātus.

A group of four people, especially a council of four men sharing office or rule.


quatern

quaternate; composed of, or arranged in, sets of four.


love quadrangle

en-noun

love quadrangle (plural love quadrangles)

(rare) A situation in which three people vie for the love of a fourth person.


cuartillo

From Spanish cuartillo (“¹⁄₄₈ Castilian bushel, &c.”), from Old Spanish quartillo (“little fourth”) in reference to its forming a fourth celemin, from quarto + -illo (“-elle: forming diminutives”), from Latin quartus (“one-fourth”). Doublet of cuartilla and quartilho.

bor

<small>¹<big>⁄</big>₄₈</small> Castilian bushel, &c.

(historical) A traditional Castilian unit of dry measure, equivalent to about 1.2 L.


love rectangle

But the breakup and awkward love rectangle were a recurring topic in Google's gossip mill, adding even more tension.

2022, Mark Bergen, Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination, Penguin, →ISBN:


Korolev cross

From Korolev + cross. From being a procedure created by the chief designer, Sergei Korolev, which forms a cross-shaped cloud of rocket plumes.

A strap-on booster rocket separation maneuver, where four strap-on boosters are ejected at the same time in four directions 90° from each other, forming a cross of exhaust plumes.


icosatetramer

(chemistry) An oligomer that has twenty-four subunits


head

one for the money, two for the show, three to make ready, and four to go

“Yes, I'll make Simpledoria get out of the way. Come here, Simpledoria. Now, Bill, put your heels together on the edge of the walk. That's right. All ready? Now then! One for the money—two for the show—three to make ready—and four for to GO!” Another silence. “By jingo, Bill Hammersley, you've beat me! Ha, ha! That was a jump! What say?”

1909, Booth Tarkington, Beasley's Christmas Party, New York: Harper & Brothers, pages 22–23:

And then they swung him back and forth, and back and forth, saying: "One for the money, two for the show, three to make ready, and four to go." And up they tossed him into the air.

2007, William Bernard McCarthy, Cinderella in America, page 268:

A countdown prior to exerting some effort, such as launching a burden or running a race.

one to begin, two to show, three to make ready, and four to go


four-tracking

Arlesey: Demolition of Three Counties station in connection with four-tracking through Arlesey.

1960 June, “Talking of trains: Sunday on the G.N. line”, in Trains Illustrated, page 322:

DfT said the £589m that has been released will be used on design and enabling works for TRU. This includes partial electrification, a new through platform at Huddersfield, and around eight miles of extra four-tracking.

2020 August 12, “Network News: Release of £589 million kick-starts Trans-Pennine Route upgrade”, in Rail, page 9:

(rail transport) Provision of four running lines on a stretch of railway track, usually two in each direction.

viergleisiger Ausbau

(rail transport) provision of four running lines


Four Shire Stone

A stone monument at the point where four English counties once met; namely Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, and (until 1931) a detached part of Worcestershire, which is now in Gloucestershire. Five civil parishes (at one time seven) meet at the stone: Chastleton, Evenlode, Great Wolford, Little Compton and Moreton-in-Marsh (OS grid ref SP2332).


Four Lane Ends

Cheshire West and Chester
Cheshire West and Chester#English

A hamlet in Tiverton and Tilstone Fearnall parish, Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire (OS grid ref SJ5561).

A locality in Kirkby-in-Furness, South Lakeland district, Cumbria (OS grid ref SD2382).

Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester#English

A hamlet in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester (OS grid ref SD7612).

A hamlet in West Lancashire district, Lancashire (OS grid ref SD4505)

A suburb of Sheffield, South Yorkshire (OS grid ref SK3984).

Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne#English

A metro station and crossroads in Newcastle upon Tyne and North Tyneside borough, Tyne and Wear (OS grid ref NZ2768).


IIIIth

From Middle English IIIIth; IIII (Roman numeral representing four) + -th.

suffix

One of the Daughters of King Edward the IIIIth,[…]iiiith Part of the Moiety of the Chaſe of Clerys,[…]

1513, Rolls of Parliament, to Supply the Deficiencies in the Journals of the House of Lords, published 1860, page ii, vii:

Thys yere, þe IIIIᵗʰ or Vᵗʰ of Novembre, was a gret wynde þat blew down many howsis in þe contrey / & tylis, & thecche, & trees.

1531, William Henry Hulme, The Middle-English Harrowing of hell and Gospel of Nicodemus, published 1907, page 161:

Thus, having nothing els of moment to advertise, I end wᵗʰ wishing unto yoʳ L. aswel as I wold unto my self. Ffrom Chattesworth, this iiiith of Octobre, 1573.

1573, Mark Aloysius Tierney, The History and Antiquities of the Castle and Town of Arundel; Including the Biography of Its Earls, from the Conquest to the Present Time, published 1834, page 737:

[…]afore the seid iiiith day of Marche[…]

1784, A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period to the Year 1783, with Notes and Other Illustrations, page 171:


four-current

(physics) The analogy of electric current density in four-dimensional spacetime


quadrimetallic

(chemistry) Containing atoms of four metals in each molecule.


tetrate

en-verb

tetrate (third-person singular simple present tetrates, present participle tetrating, simple past and past participle tetrated)

tetrates (present singular third-person)
tetrating (participle present)
tetrated (participle past)
tetrated (past)


tetracosa-

Pseudo-loan from Ancient Greek, as if formed from τετρα- (tetra-) + εἴκοσι (eíkosi) by analogy with docosa-. However, Ancient Greek τετρακόσιοι (tetrakósioi) actually means “four hundred”, not “twenty-four”. The Ancient Greek word for “twenty-four” is εἰκοσιτέσσαρες (eikositéssares).


fourth wall joke

en-noun

fourth wall joke (plural fourth wall jokes)

(theater, film, television) A joke that intentionally draws attention to the illusion of separation between the audience and the fiction itself.


tetraples

From French tétraples, from Ancient Greek τετραπλᾶ (tetraplâ), neuter plural of τετραπλοῦς (tetraploûs, “fourfold”), from τετρα- (tetra-, “tetra-: four”) + -πλόος (-plóos, “-fold”).


biquadrated

2 biquadrated is equal to 16.

(mathematics) Raised to the fourth power.


cuarteron

From Spanish cuarterón, from cuarto (“one-fourth”) + -ón (forming related nouns). Doublet of quadroon.

suffix

(historical) A traditional Spanish unit of mass, equivalent to about 115 g.


quartarius

en-noun

quartarius (plural quartariuses or quartarii)

quartariuses (plural)
quartarii (plural)

From Latin quārtārius (“one-fourth”), from quārtus (“fourth”) + -ārius (“-ary: forming adj.”) from its relation to the sextarius. Doublet of quartary.

(historical) A Roman unit of liquid measure reckoned as the volume of 5/12 Roman pound of wine and equivalent to about 0.14 L although varying slightly over time.


Four Hundred

(US) A list of the people in New York fashionable society during the Gilded Age.


(geometry) Synonym of quadrilateral: A polygon with four sides.


sexagintaquattuornion

From Latin sexaginta quattuor (“sixty four”).

(mathematics) A 64-dimensional hypercomplex number.