Synonyms for quaternaries
- quadrivium
- quadrumvirate
- quadruple
- quadruplet
- quadruplets
- quartet
- quartette
- quaternary
- quaternion
- quaternity
- tetrad
- tetralogy
- quadrigeminal
- quadripartition
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR QUATERNARIES
In Diagram II we have arranged at opposite points the primaries 1, the secondaries 2, the tertiaries 3, the quaternaries 4.
It is easy to understand the composition of secondaries, but it is not so easy to know the tertiaries and quaternaries.
The second circle is composed of the secondaries; the third circle, the tertiaries, and the outer circle, the quaternaries.
WORD ORIGIN
early 15c., "consisting of four parts," from Latin quaternarius "of four each, containing four," from quaterni "four each, by fours," from quater "four times," related to quattuor "four" (see four). Also as a noun, "the number four" (mid-15c.), from Latin quaternarius.
In geological sense, attested from 1843 in English, proposed 1829 by French geologist Jules Pierre François Stanislas Desnoyers (1800-1887) as name for "the fourth great epoch of geological time," but because it comprises only the age of man, and the other epochs are many hundred times longer, not all accepted it.