quaternity

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*kʷetwóres
2. Latinquater
3. Latinquaternus
4. Late Latinquaternitā
5. Old Frenchquaternité
6. Middle Frenchquaternité
7. Late Latinquaternitā
8. English todayquaternity

Learned borrowing from Middle French quaternité (“set of four things; (Christianity) dogma that there are four persons in the Godhead”), from Old French quaternité (modern French quaternité); and from their etymon Late Latin quaternitās (“set of four things; (Christianity) group of four persons in the Godhead”) (modelled after trīnitās (“triad; (Christianity) the Trinity”)) + English -ity (suffix forming abstract nouns). Quaternitās is derived from Latin quaternī + -tās (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting states of being); and quaternī is an inflection of quaternus (“four at a time; fourfold”), from quater (“four times”) (from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres (“four”)) + -nus (suffix forming distributive numerals). By surface analysis, quatern + -ity.

Words from the same roots