Etymology

quartation

Q10U1A1R1T1A1T1I1O1N1

Today it means: The act, process, or result (in the process of parting) of alloying a button of nearly pure gold with enough silver to reduce the fineness so as to allow acids to attack and remove all metals except the gold. Full definition →

Latin quartus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromquartus
  2. English todayquartation

Latin quartus, "fourth", because usually enough silver is added to make the amount of gold in the alloyed button about one fourth.

Words from the same roots

Latinquartus all →

quartquartocotocuartoquartacuartillacuartilloquadroonquartanequartaryquartinequasquicentennial

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.