2006-07-19

prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
2006-07-19 07:08 am

quadrivial

quadrivial - adj., having four ways or roads meeting at a point.


A cross-road -- more common now, with planned urbes on a rectilinear grid, but as opposed to a trivial (threeway) intersection of old. From Latin quadrivium, a place where four ways meet, from quattuor, four + via, way. The metaphoric uses of "one more/better than trivial" appeal to me.

(I'm ignoring the senses related to the quadrivium of medieval education.)

---L.