sexagenary, a. and n.
(sɛkˈsædʒɪnərɪ)
[ad. L. sexāgēnāri-us, f. sexāgēnī sixty each, distributive of sexāgintā sixty.
In some dicts. of the 18th and 19th c. the word is accented ˈsexagenary, in some of the 18th sexaˈgenary.]
A. adj.
1. Math. Of or belonging to the number 60; composed of or proceeding by sixties; pertaining to a scale of numbers of which the modulus is 60.
sexagenary arithmetic = sexagesimal arithmetic. sexagenary table, a table of proportional parts which shows at sight the product or quotient of any two sexagenary numbers to be multiplied or divided.
| 1594 Blundevil Exerc. i. (1597) 34 (bis), The Sexagenary progression is alwaies to be vsed, as well in Diuision as in Multiplycation. Ibid. 37 b, The description and vse of the Sexagenarie Table. 1669–70 Flamsteed in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men. (1841) II. 93 In the study of..Mr. Halton I once saw one [sc. a mathematical canon] of Vlaccus to every ten sexagenary seconds. 1721 Bailey, Sexagenary Arithmetick. 1785 Hutton Math. Tables 1 Ptolemy, who used the sexagenary arithmetic for this division of chords and arcs, and for astronomical purposes. 1795 T. Maurice Hindostan (1820) I. i. viii. 274 The emperor Yu,..who flourished..about the middle of the third great sexagenary cycle. 1819 J. Wilson Dict. Astrol. 398 Leaving the left hand column for the seconds, but they may be made to answer to any sexagenary proportion. |
2. = sexagenarian a.
| 1638 Mayne Lucian (1664) 141 Though he was a Sexagenary Bridegroome. 1755 Chesterfield in World IV. 132 The sexagenary widow remembers that she was handsome, but forgets that it was thirty years ago. 1819 Byron Wks. (1846) 799/1 Having a sexagenary aunt of my own. 1821 Blackw. Mag. X. 88 Some will have this to be the due consequences of sexagenary decay. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh i. 1038, I count it strange..That nearly all young poets should write old, That Pope was sexagenary at sixteen. |
B. n.
† 1. Math. and Astr. = sexagesimal B. n.
| 1668 Glanvill Plus Ultra 23 The Decimal Arithmetick, which avoids the tedious way of computing by Vulgar Fractions in..Sexagenaries in Astronomy. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v., Sexagesimal Fractions, or Sexagenaries, are such as have always 60 for their Denominator. 1728 Chambers Cycl., Sexagenary Tables, are Tables of proportional Parts, shewing the Product of Two Sexagenaries, or Sexagena's that are to be multiplied; or the Quotient of Two, to be divided. |
2. = sexagenarian n. Now rare or Obs.
| 1814 Scott Wav. xliii, The lad can sometimes be as dowff as a sexagenary like myself. 1841 Moore Mem. (1856) VII. 290, I..went down an English country dance of fifty couples on the stone floor, no trifling achievement for a sexagenary. |