quaternaryn.adj.
/kwəˈtəːn(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈkwɑdərˌnɛri/ A. n.
1. † b. Chiefly Medicine. A period spanning four days, or every fourth day (by inclusive reckoning), esp. during the course of a fever. Obsolete.Used esp. with reference to Hippocratic teaching on crises in fevers.
a. Originally: †the number four (obsolete). Later: a set of or group of four; a compound entity with four component parts. Now rare.† quaternary of numbers Obsolete. = quaternary number n. at Compounds.
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the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > four > [noun]
fourOE
quaternaryc1450
cater1553
quaternion1768
rouf1950
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > four > [noun] > group of four
quaternionc1384
quadrivial?a1475
messa1529
quaternity1529
quaternio1601
mournival1631
quadrate1637
quaternarya1638
tetrad1653
quadruplet1795
quartetto1807
quatrain1862
quartet1882
quad1896
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > numerical arrangement > [noun] > set > elements in or parts of > specific number of
hebdomad1545
quaternion1549
tetractys1603
quaternary number1605
tetrad1653
heptad1660
pentad1660
quaternary of numbers1809
tripair1878
trey1887
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 326v Þe nombre of foure hatte quaternarius.]
c1450 Art Nombryng in R. Steele Earliest Arithm. in Eng. (1922) 40 Withdraw therfor the quaternary of the article of his denominacion twies, of 40, And ther remaynethe 32.
1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 1310 The quaternarie [Fr. quatre, Gk. τέτταρα] is the first square or quadrate number.
a1638 J. Mede Wks. (1672) 654 In which Quaternary of Kingdoms..the Roman, being the Last of the Four, is the Last Kingdom.
1788 T. Taylor tr. Proclus Philos. & Math. Comm. (1792) I. 179 The tetradic ternary, and the triadic quaternary.
1809 W. Irving Hist. N.Y. I. ii. ii. 83 They are regarded with as much veneration as were the disciples of Pythagoras..when initiated into the sacred quaternary of numbers.
1845 G. E. Day tr. J. F. Simon Animal Chem. I. 141 Thus quaternary compounds may be split into several quaternaries with the same or a different radical.
1889 Pop. Sci. Monthly Apr. 740 Quaternaries,..quinaries, sextaries, etc., according as the number of the constituent elements increases.
1984 Jrnl. Music Theory 28 197 Quaternaries such as the tetrad played a role in Pythagoreanism that equals and perhaps surpasses that of trinities in Christianity.
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1597 P. Lowe Whole Course Chirurg. iii. sig. D The ende or tearme of the Feuer is..in the 4. day: the second on the seuenth: the sixt on the 20 day, the which nomber doth augment by quaternaries.
1661 R. Lovell Πανζωορυκτολογια, sive Panzoologicomineralogia 438 According to quaternaries, or septenaries [of days] after the nature of the disease.
1710 J. Floyer Pulse Watch II. xiv. 104 The Circuitus in Fevers by Weeks is most certain and common, those by Quaternaries less.
1732 T. Dale tr. J. Lommius Treat. Continual Fevers 201 The twentieth Day is the last of the sixth Quaternary, and the third Septenary.
1752 T. Glass Twelve Comm. Fevers iii. 23 It having been observed that a Crisis happens more frequently, and that its Signs are more certain on some particular Days, the Antients have called these Days Critical, among which the Septenaries were esteemed the most efficacious, and the next the Quaternaries.
2. Geology. (With capital initial.) The Quaternary period; the deposits collectively dating from this time. See sense B. 2.
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1870 Nature 16 June 119/1 I propose to..show the relation which the American Mammalia bore to those of Europe, from the Miocene down to the ‘Quaternary’, or Post-glacial epoch.
1910 Encycl. Brit. II. 344/2 The beginning of archaeology..may be broadly held to follow on the last of the geological periods, viz., the Quaternary.
1946 L. D. Stamp Britain's Struct. & Scenery ii. 16 The Quaternary is not really comparable in duration or importance with the other great eras.
1977 A. Hallam Understanding Earth 234 The Pleistocene is a subdivision embracing the period from the beginning of the Quaternary until 10,000 years ago.
1990 P. Kearey & F. J. Vine Global Tectonics ix. 183 During the late Quaternary the igneous activity diminished, compressive stresses relaxed and graben formed within the Altiplano.
3. Anything of the fourth order, rank, or series; (Grammar) (O. Jespersen's word for) a word or phrase of the fourth order or rank.
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the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > syntax or word order > syntactic unit or constituent > [noun] > word or phrase of specific rank or importance
quaternary1899
adjunct1914
subjunct1914
adnex1924
primary1924
secondary1924
tertiary1924
focus1966
1899 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 26 48 [Kohl] distinguishes four types of calcium oxalates... The primaries are found in buds... The quaternaries are deposited in the leaves in the autumn and remain there.
1937 O. Jespersen Analyt. Syntax 121 The possibility of having quaternaries, quinaries, and so forth.
1946 O. Jespersen Mod. Eng. Gram. V. i. 3 In other combinations we may have quaternaries or quinaries, e.g. a not (5) particularly (4) well (3) constructed (2) plot (1).
1989 Herpetol. Monogr. 3 13/2 Production of quaternaries in caecilians would require further subdivision of each primary annulus. If this occurred, then, between each pair of primary grooves, there should be seven other grooves: one secondary, two tertiaries, and four quaternaries.
2000 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 87 Suppl. 75 Tertiary veins [sc. in a fossil plant] are random reticulate with quaternaries forming irregular areolae.
4. Chemistry. A quaternary ammonium compound, esp. one used as a disinfectant. Cf. sense B. 1b.
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the world > matter > chemistry > elements and compounds > [noun] > compounds > types
anhydride1863
quaternary1947
clathrate1948
1947 Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 1 173 Jacobs and associates..studied the relation between structure and bactericidal effects in the hexamethylene tetramine groups. This was followed in 1928 by Hartmann & Kägi's work..with other quaternaries.
1955 J. G. Davis Dict. Dairying (ed. 2) 880 The degree to which complexes of this kind will be found depends upon the particular quaternary used.
1968 Kirk-Othmer Encycl. Chem. Technol. (ed. 2) XVI. 860 Some quaternaries form hydrates or other solvates.
1987 Infection Control 8 501 Eighteen laboratories tested identical samples of six EPA-registered, hospital-grade disinfectants (three phenolics and three quaternaries).
B. adj.
1.
a. Expressing or associated with the number four; constituted of four parts or components; divisible by four. Recorded earliest in quaternary number n. at Compounds.
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the world > matter > chemistry > elements and compounds > [adjective] > of or relating to compounds > by number of contitutive elements > four
quaternary1605
quaternalc1616
quaternarian1647
1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke i. xi. 45 To appoynt a quaternarie number of elements, out of the quaternary number of the fower qualities.
1665 G. Thomson Galeno-pale xi. 44 What an absurdity it is to take in Fire, which is neither a Substance nor an Accident, to make up the four elements,..and from these Quaternary Elements to deduce their four Humours, Complexions and Temperaments.
1777 W. Cullen First Lines Pract. Physic I. v. 93 It is this [sc. Pythagorean theory] which seems to have produced the doctrines of odd days, and of a quaternary and septenary period, which appear so often in the writings of Hippocrates.
1819 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 109 77 We consider each observation as representing a binary combination of counters or constant errors, in which the mean error is ½... For a quaternary combination, if the error, which amounts to ⅜, be found..[etc.]
1841 Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc. 11 228 Among the Indian tribes from Queen Charlotte's Island to California, a very different system [of numeration] is followed, which is neither quinary nor denary, but quaternary, of which four and its multiples form the basis.
1939 Sci. Monthly Aug. 153/1 No quaternary, or four-component, system of silicates has as yet been completely studied.
1979 World Archaeol. 11 73 Allen..suggests that a quaternary alloy of copper, lead, zinc and tin was being produced.
2001 Jrnl. Cell Biol. 155 962/1 It is not known whether these four proteins constitute a single stable quaternary complex.
b. Chemistry. Of an ion or compound (esp. an ammonium compound): containing a principal atom which forms four bonds to organic radicals; designating such an atom. Also: designating a carbon atom bonded to four other carbon atoms.
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the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > [adjective] > organic structure
primary1864
quaternary1871
vicinal1898
secondary1903
tertiary1903
1871 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 24 570 Hofmann considers that Drechsel and Finkelstein had tertiary and quaternary phosphonium salts under examination, and not a salt of the primary phosphine.
1903 A. J. Walker & O. E. Mott tr. A. F. Holleman Text-bk. Org. Chem. I. 46 A carbon atom which is only linked to one other carbon atom is called primary... If it is linked..to four, quaternary.
1910 N. V. Sidgwick Org. Chem. Nitrogen ii. 22 The quaternary hydroxides are strong bases.
1941 Chem. Abstr. 35 3596 K. and B. intended to study the mechanism of the bactericidal action of Zephirol..and other quaternary ammonium, sulfonium and phosphonium salts.
1952 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 74 5619/1 The formation of the two nitriles in the alkylation reaction is believed to be due to the cyclic quaternary structure of the alkylating agent.
1972 Materials & Technol. V. x. 304 Among the more complex quaternary surfactants are some which include two quaternary nitrogen atoms.
1995 Common Ground Mag. Autumn 20/3 Avoid stearylkonium chloride and similar quaternary ammonium compounds used in hair conditioners.
2. Geology. (Usually with capital initial.) Designating the most recent period in geological history, comprising the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs and marked by the evolution of humans and other mammals into their present forms; of or relating to this period.The start of the Quaternary period is variously dated between 1.8 and 2.6 million years ago, following the Tertiary period, with which it constitutes the Cenozoic era.
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the world > the earth > structure of the earth > age or period > [adjective] > quaternary
quaternary1840
post-Pliocene1841
1840 W. Humble Dict. Geol. 216/2 The faluns, or marls of Tourraine and the Loire, are quaternary formations.
1852 J. Hall Key to Chart Successive Geol. Formations 9 In this division are included, 1, the Tertiary System proper, and, 2, the Quaternary, or deposits of recent production.
1871 C. Darwin Descent of Man I. vii. 237 The quaternary race of the caverns of Belgium.
1880 A. R. Wallace Island Life xxi. 448 Deposits which may be of Quaternary or even of Pliocene age.
1927 Amer. Mercury Jan. 69/1 This formation is of a later date, the Pleistocene Epoch, to be specific, which places it in Quaternary time, during the Ice Age.
1955 Science 28 Oct. 815/3 Separate or alternating glaciations of the Northern and Southern hemispheres..evidently did not occur during the Quarternary [sic] period.
1981 J. McPhee Basin & Range 124 The moraines left by ice sheets are Quaternary.
1996 Dict. National Biogr. 1986–90 at Shotton, Frederick William At Birmingham he created one of the outstanding British centres for Quaternary research.
3.
a. Of or belonging to the fourth order or rank; fourth in a series.
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the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > four > [adjective] > fourth
fourthc950
quarterth1658
quaternary1851
1851 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 141 176 The interior was seen to be filled with secondary cells. Each of these..appeared to contain other, or tertiary cells, and..these again seemed to contain granules, or quaternary cells.
1874 H. W. Beecher Plymouth Pulpit II. 486 The first comprehensive determination breaks itself up into subsidiary determinations, so that the primary will becomes secondary, the secondary becomes tertiary, and the tertiary quaternary.
1883 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 843/1 The term colony, corm, or deme may indifferently be applied to these aggregates of primary, secondary, tertiary, or quaternary order.
1924 O. Jespersen Philos. Gram. vii. 96 A tertiary word may be further defined by a (quaternary) word, and this again by a (quinary) word.
1972 R. A. Willis & A. T. Willis Princ. Pathol. & Bacteriol. (ed. 3) xvi. 201 The quaternary syphilitic diseases are (1) general paralysis of the insane or dementia paralytica, and (2) locomotor ataxia or tabes dorsalis.
2002 T. Dartnall Creativity, Cognition, & Knowl. 163 With a quaternary relation all the comparisons that are possible with ternary relations can be made, as well as four-way comparisons; the effect on w of variations in x, y, z, the effects on x of variations in w, y, z, and so on.
b. spec. Designating the sector of the economy or workforce concerned with intellectual or informational services.
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society > occupation and work > worker > [adjective] > specific part of workforce
tertiary1940
quaternary1961
1961 J. Gottman Megalopolis xi. 576 One wonders whether a new distinction should not be introduced in all the mass of nonproduction employment: a differentiation between tertiary services—transportation, trade in the simpler sense of direct sales, maintenance, and personal services—and a new and distinct quaternary family of economic activities—services that involve transactions, analysis, research, or decision-making, and also education and government. Such quaternary types require more intellectual training and responsibility.
1975 J. B. Goddard Office Location in Urban & Regional Devel. ii. 11 The intra-urban location of head office functions and of independent firms in the quaternary sector.
1999 C. Crouch Social Change in W. Europe iv. 110 The quaternary sector..is everywhere very small, but growing rapidly.
Compounds
quaternary compound n. Chemistry †(a) a compound containing a combination of four chemical elements or radicals, esp. (in living systems) one containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (obsolete); (b) a compound consisting of or containing a quaternary salt, esp. a quaternary ammonium compound (see sense B. 1b).
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1790 R. Kerr tr. A. Lavoisier Elements Chem. ii. iv. 189 I give the name of binary to the combinations of oxygen with the simple substances, because in these only two elements are combined. When three substances are united in one combination I call it ternary, and quaternary [L. quaternaires] when the combination consists of four substances united.]
1804 W. Nicholson tr. A.-F. de Fourcroy Gen. Syst. Chem. Knowl. VII. 169 All these different materials are only progressive modifications of the same matter, of a single primitive, ternary or quaternary compound.
1825 T. Thomson Attempt to Establish First Princ. Chem. I. 37 Ammonia is a quaternary compound, consisting of 1 atom azote and 3 atoms hydrogen.
1860 R. Owen Palæontol. 4 When an organism..developes [sic] tissues, the proximate principles of which are quaternary compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, it is called an ‘animal’.
1910 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 32 762 Methyldiphenylamine reacted smoothly with dimethylsulphate..giving the quaternary compound (C6H5)2(CH3)2NSO4CH35.
1925 Amer. Mercury May 127/2 The first result was a long series of quaternary compounds, based upon the amino-acids.
1991 Jrnl. Chromatogr. Biomed. Applic. 572 181 (title) Determination of the quaternary compound cyclotropium in human biological material.
quaternary number n. [compare classical Latin quaternārius numerus number divisible by four, French nombre quaternaire (1613 or earlier)] now historical and rare (in Pythagorean philosophy) = quaternion n. 2; (loosely) the fact of there being four of something.
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the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > numerical arrangement > [noun] > set > elements in or parts of > specific number of
hebdomad1545
quaternion1549
tetractys1603
quaternary number1605
tetrad1653
heptad1660
pentad1660
quaternary of numbers1809
tripair1878
trey1887
1605Quaternary number [see sense B. 1a].
1695 F. Gregory Doctr. Trinity 63 We read what great respect Pythagoras and his sect had for their quaternary number.
1788 T. Taylor Diss. Platonic Doctr. Ideas in tr. Proclus Philos. & Math. Comm. I. p. xcvi The quaternary number belongs to the soul so far as she is connected with matter, which is tempered with four qualities, and four elements.
1830 J. Lindley Introd. Nat. Syst. Bot. 14 The quaternary number of the divisions of the flower.
1952 Church Hist. 21 219 Irenaeus tried to create the pretence of a natural order for the existence of four separate Gospels, by pointing to the cosmic-holy quaternary number.
quaternary structure n. [compare slightly earlier tertiary adj. 1f] Biochemistry the three-dimensional arrangement and relationships of the subunits which make up a complex protein, nucleoprotein, or other multimeric macromolecule (cf. tertiary structure n. at tertiary adj. 1f).
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1958 J. D. Bernal in Discussions Faraday Soc. 25 14 (caption) Hierarchy of polymer complexes:..(d) quaternary structure (homogeneous type), linked groups of tertiary molecules, haemoglobin structure..; (e) quaternary structure (heterogeneous type)—linking of different types of ternary protein and primary ribonuclease, tobacco mosaic virus.
1964 G. H. Haggis et al. Introd. Molecular Biol. iv. 81 The presence of the nucleic acid chain apparently increases the cohesion between sub-units in successive turns of the helical quaternary structure.
1977 Lancet 26 Nov. 1116/1 The four glycoprotein hormones..possess a common quaternary structure characterised by two dissimilar polypeptide chains called the α and β subunits.
1997 J. B. Mitton Select. in Nat. Populations 61 As the number of subunits increases, steric restrictions on the shape of the subunits increase as well... Some biologists..propose that proteins with different quaternary structures would exhibit different levels of genetic variation.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.adj.c1450