Etymologically
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quinquagiens

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Forms

quīnquāgiēns (not comparable)[1] It is also spelled quīnquāgiēs.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin quīnquāgintā (“fifty”) + -iēns.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest quotation is from Varro's De lingua Latina, quinquagiens centum milia discrimina, “fifty times a hundred thousand differences”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It means fifty times,[2][4] and is used especially in multiplication: sestertium quinquagiens is five million sesterces.[2] Pliny the Elder writes of fighting fifty times (dimicare) and of fifty times a hundred thousand (centena milia), and Celsus has it of rubbing.[4]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it in multiplication.[2][3]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it.[4][3]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of battles and in large numbers.[4][3]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Fifty times.[2][4][1]
  2. (in multiplication) sestertium quinquagiens, five million sesterces.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press