quattuor

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkʷat.tu.ɔr]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkʷat.tu.or]^[1]

Forms

quattuor (indeclinable)^[1] Quātuor and quattor are later spellings.^[2] Plautus scans it in two syllables.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kʷetwōr, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kʷétuōr (“four”).^[4] The /a/ for expected /e/ is unexplained in Wiktionary's account, and de Vaan takes it from forms with zero grade, Proto-Indo-European *kʷt-, as in compounds with quadru-.^[4][1] Cognate with Oscan pettiur (“four”) and Umbrian peturpursus (“quadrupeds”), and further with Old Irish cethair (“four”), Sanskrit चत्वारः (catvā́raḥ, “four”) and Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares, “four”).^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it.^[4] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It was the number four, indeclinable, and formed the base of words such as quater “four times”, quadrāns “a quarter” and quattuordecim “fourteen”.^[4][3]

In British medieval Latin quattuor tempora were the Ember Days, the four seasons of fasting, and quattuor viae was a crossroads.^[6] It survives as Italian quattro, French quatre and Romanian patru.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[4][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius has ter quattuor corpora “twelve bodies”.^[2][5]
• c. 1300 – English quarter is recorded, through Old French from a Latin derivative of the same root.^[7]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Four.^[3][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) Quattuor tempora, the Ember Days.^[6]

Word family

• quadricolor
• quadrifluuium
• quadrifluus
• quadrigeminus
• quadriiugis
• quadringentī
• quadripertītus
• quadruplicō
• quadrurbs
• quattuordecim
• quattuorprimi
• quattuorvir

Related words

• triquetrus
• quartus
• English quarter
• English square

Usage notes

Isidore wrote that four took its name from the figure of the square (quadrātum).^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).