Etymologically
Log in

quinquagesimus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 14:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kʷiːŋ.kʷaːˈɡeː.sɪ.mʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kʷiŋ.kʷaˈd͡ʒɛː.s̬i.mus][1]

Forms

quīnquāgēsimus (feminine quīnquāgēsima, neuter quīnquāgēsimum); first/second-declension numeral[1] It is also spelled quinquāgēnsimus.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin quīnquāgintā (“fifty”) + -ēsimus.[2][1] That numeral goes back to quīnque (“five”); according to de Vaan its ⟨ā⟩, for an expected *quinquēgintā, was taken from the word for forty.[3] He traces the word for five to Proto-Italic *kʷenkʷe and Proto-Indo-European *penkʷe (“five”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Plautus.[4] It means “fiftieth”: Cicero dates an event to about the three hundred and fiftieth year after the founding of Rome.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder uses it of a man's fifty-first year, and the OLD records a yield of up to fiftyfold, cum quinquagesimo fenore.[5][2] The feminine, with pars understood, is a fiftieth part: Vitruvius uses it in proportions, and in the Verrines Cicero complains of fiftieths exacted on top of the tithe.[2][5] As a tax, the two per cent duty, it appears in Tacitus, who records its abolition, and in Symmachus.[2][6]

In church use the feminine, with diēs understood, became the name of Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Easter.[6][7] Medieval writers in Britain also use Quinquagesima for the period from the Sunday before Lent to Easter, and for that Sunday itself; a letter of 798 in Alcuin's correspondence explains the name.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the feminine for a fiftieth part levied as a tax.[2][5][4]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus records the abolition of the two per cent duty.[2][4]
  • 798 – A letter in Alcuin's correspondence explains the name Quinquagesima.[7]

Meanings

Numeral

  1. Fiftieth.[2][5][6]
  2. (feminine, quīnquāgēsima) A fiftieth part;[2][5] a two per cent duty or tax.[2][6]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin, feminine) Pentecost;[6][7] (Medieval Latin) the period from the Sunday before Lent to Easter, and that Sunday, Quinquagesima.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c d e 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