quini

Forms

quīnī, quīnae, quīna^[1][2] The singular quīnus is rare.^[1] The genitive plural is quīnum, in Columella and the Digest.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from quīnque (“five”) with the suffix -nus.^[1][2] De Vaan reconstructs it as *kwenkw-(s)no- and traces quīnque to Proto-Italic *kwenkwe (“five”) and Proto-Indo-European *penkʷe (“five”), comparing Oscan pomtis (“five times”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Truculentus: the hangers-on come to the prostitutes five or six at a time.^[1][3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is the distributive numeral, five each or five apiece: Caesar has five feet each, and Nepos five verses each.^[1][2] It also means five at a time or together, as Cicero's Greeks crammed five to a couch.^[1][2] Virgil uses it once like a cardinal number, of five herds of cattle.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of five at a time.^[1][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of five to a couch.^[1][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of five feet each.^[2][4]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Five each, five apiece.^[1][2][5]
2. Five at a time, five together.^[1]
3. (poetic) Five.^[1]

Related words

• quīnque
• quīntus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson