quatern

[Latin quaterni =four each; qua tuor four.] Consisting of four, fourfold, growing in fours. sin, as; expect, Xenophon, exist. ph = f. IMG:content-0073.png:[blocks in formation] Quaternate-leaf. *I. Ordinary Language : 1. The number four, or set of four, a file of four soldiers. ( Acts xii. 4.) 2. A word of four syılables, a quadrisyllable. II. Math.: The metro graphic relation existing between any two right lines, having definite lengths and directions in space, depending upon four irreducible geometrical elements. Discovered and developed by Sir W. Hamilton. "A quaternion is the quotient of two vectors, or of two directed right lines in space, considered as depending on a system of four geometrical elements, and as expre ible by an alphabetical symbol of quadrinomial form."- Sir W. Hamilton. qua-ter-ni-ôn, v. t. [QUATERNION, subst. ] To divide into quaternions, files, or companies. "The angels themselves, in whom no disorder is feared, are distinguish'd and quaternion'd into their celestial princedoms and satrapies." -Milton : Reason of Ch. Gov. ernment, bk. ii. (App.) *qua-ter-ni-ty, *qua-ter-ni-tie, s . [Fr. qua tern ité, from Lat. qua tern it as , from quaterni = four each.] The condition or quality of making up the number four. "Their whole scale was not a trinity but a quaternity, or four ranks and degrees of beings."-Cudworth: Intell. System , p. 537.