quaternus

Meaning

1. numeralpluralfour each; four at a time
   A͞mphŏră vīge͞s[s]i͞s, mŏdĭu͞s dătŭr a͞erĕ quăte͞rnō. / Ebrius et crudus, nil habet agricola.An amphora [of wine] sells for a twenty-as piece; a peck [of grain] for four coppers. Drunk and suffering from indigestion, the farmer has nothing.86 CE – 103 CE, Martialis, Epigrammata 12.76.1
2. numeralfour (collective), fourfold
   bratteolas trabibus sublevit, ut omnis aurulenta lux esset intus, ceu iubar sub ortu. subdidit et Parias fulvis laquearibus columnas,1953 translation by H. J. Thomson He laid plates on the beams so as to make all the light within golden like the sun’s radiance at its rising, and supported the gold-panelled ceiling on pillars of Parian marble set out there in four rows.c. 405 CE, Prudentius, Liber Peristephanon 12
   O͞mnĭă cu͞i su͞bsi͞nt cu͞i su͞bsi͞t mōbĭlĕ prīmu͞m O͞ctŏ quŏque a͞ssĭdŭā mōbĭlĭtātĕ glŏbī A͞tque ĕlĕme͞ntōru͞m cu͞i su͞bsĭdĕt ōrdŏ quăte͞rnu͞sTo whom all are under, to whom is subject the Primum Mobile As well as eight globes in perpetual motion And to whom subsides the fourfold rank of the elements Whom anything that breathes in the entire world worships.c. 1450 – 1500, Ludovico Lazzarelli, De gentilium deorum imaginibus 225

Declension

Phrases from Meissner's Latin Phrase-Book

quaternas centesimas postulare (Att. 5. 21. 11)

to demand 48 per cent.

Origins

Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóresder. Latin quater Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Latin -nus Latin -nus Latin quaternus From quater (“four times”) + -nus.

Related words