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Theme week! -- less usual number words. Starting with:
quincunx (KWIN-kuhngks) - n., an arrangement of five objects with four at the corners of a square and the fifth in the middle; (astrol.) an aspect of 150° between planets; a bronze Roman coin worth five-twelfths of an as.
The five on a die is a quincunx. The word has been in use in English since 1545 in, interestingly, the astrological sense -- 150° being 5/12 of the circle -- but the cross-shaped arrangement is the far more common meaning now, included, especially, botany. The Roman coin is the origin, and the name meant just what its value was: quinque, five + uncia, twelfth -- the arrangement comes from how the coin was marked with five pips on one side, in just such a manner.
---L.
quincunx (KWIN-kuhngks) - n., an arrangement of five objects with four at the corners of a square and the fifth in the middle; (astrol.) an aspect of 150° between planets; a bronze Roman coin worth five-twelfths of an as.
The five on a die is a quincunx. The word has been in use in English since 1545 in, interestingly, the astrological sense -- 150° being 5/12 of the circle -- but the cross-shaped arrangement is the far more common meaning now, included, especially, botany. The Roman coin is the origin, and the name meant just what its value was: quinque, five + uncia, twelfth -- the arrangement comes from how the coin was marked with five pips on one side, in just such a manner.
---L.
