quintal, quyntall

[Fr. quintal, from Sp. quintal, from Arab. qintár a weight of 100 lbs. of twelve ounces each, from Lat.centum =a hundred.] A weight of 100 or 112 pounds, according to the scale used. The French quintal métrique is 100 kilogrammes or 220.46 lbs. avoirdupois. "Allow eche person in the whole fleete half a quint all euery moneth." -Hackluyt : Voyages , i. 593. quin-tan, a . & s. [ Lat.quintan us , from quint us fifth.] A. As adj .: Happening or recurring every fifth day; as, a quintan fever. IMG:content-0122.png:[blocks in formation] quin-ter-on, s . [QUINTROON.] quin-těs-sençe, s . [Fr., from Lat. quinta e en tia the fifth e ence; Ital. quintes senza .] 1. The fifth, last, or highest e ence of power in a natural body. "The ancient Greeks said there are four elements or forms in which matter can exist: Fire, or the imponder. able form; air, or the gaseous form; water, or the liquid form; and earth, or the solid form. The Pythagoreans added a fifth, which they called ether, more subtile and pure than fire, and po e ed of an orbicular motion." Brewer: Dict. Phrase and Fable. IMG:content-0123.jpg:[blocks in formation] quinte ence 2. Hence, fig., an extract of something containing its vital or e ential parts, qualities, or virtues; the pure and con contra ted e ence; the purest or highest part, stage, or state of anything. "Each of them considered his darling form of ecclesiastical polity as the quinte ence of the Christian religion."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. xvi. 3. Chemistry : The alchemists distinguished four e ences answering to the four Aristo tel i an elements; to these Lullius added a fifth, namely, alcohol, denominated quinta e entia , on account of its enlivening action. The term is sometimes also used to denote the therapeutic constituents of any substance. ( Watts .)