Meanings
participle present quintating
- obsoleterareTo seize or destroy one fifth (of something).
1 more example
1812, Emanuel Swedenborg [aut.] and J. Clowes [tr.], Arcana Cœlestia VII (2nd ed.), chapter xli, pages 210⁽¹⁾ and 270⁽²⁾ ⁽¹⁾ Let Pharaoh…quintate^✸ the land of Egypt in the seven years of abundance of provision. ✸ Quintate signifies to take a fifth of any thing, and is derived from the Latin quintus, signifying a fifth, as decimate is derived from decimus, signifying a tenth. ⁽²⁾ “And let him quintate the land” — that hereby is signified which were to be preserved and afterwards stored up, appears from the signification of quintating, as here involving the like with decimating.
- misconstructionnot comparablebiologyMisconstruction of quinate.
The large quintate leaves constitute a luxuriant, glossy green foliage.
1882, Vick’s Monthly Magazine, V, page 1673 more examples
Potentilla Reptans, Cinquefoil, a…European herb, with leaves which are usually quintate, and have thus given origin to the ordinary name of the plant.
1851, “The Dispensatory of the United States of America” (9th ed.), quoted in the Journal of Materia Medica XIV (1875), page 49The radical leaves…are ternate or quintate, with lobed and dentate leaflets.
1880, Lucius Elmer Sayre, Conspectus of Organic Materia Medica and Pharmacal Botany, page 127Leaves 1-2-pinnate or ternate- or quintate-pinnate, the ultimate divisions remote, linear, 1–5 cm long.
1952, Ray Joseph Davis, Flora of Idaho, page 515
plural quintates
- misconstructionrarebiologyMisconstruction of quinate.
As to radiates, these are ternates and quintates, two in number, From among which we “plucked the four-leaf clover.”
1889, Report of Proceedings … at the … Annual Meeting …, ? X-XVI, page 193 - raremathematicsThe set of the series of integers that occur between a multiple of five and the next (exclusive of those multiples).
We have as variations for the numbers from 6 to 9, 6 = X + 1…, 7 = X + 2, etc.,…the numerals of the second quintate repeating without the use of the expressed base five.
1913, W.C. Eells, “Number Systems of the North American Indians”, in The American Mathematical Monthly, XX, page 294
Origin
- Latinquīntus“fifth”
- Englishquintate
First attested in verbal use in 1812, in adjectival use in 1851, and in nominal use in 1889; from the Classical Latin quīntus (“fifth”); in the verbal sense after decimate, and in the botanic senses by mistaken analogy with ternate.
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Cite this entry
quintate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quintate
“quintate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quintate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quintate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quintate.
Source: quintate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.