▪ I. † ˈsenary, n. Obs.
[ad. L. sēnārius adj. (see next) used subst. by ellipsis.]
1. [= senarius (numerus).] The number six; a set or sequence of six things; in the 17th c. often, the six days of the Creation.
| 1570 Billingsley Euclid x. lxx. 280 b, Hetherto hath bene spoken of sixe Senaryes, of which the first Senary [sc. of propositions] contayneth the production of irrationall lines by composition. Ibid. lxxiii. 282 b, Here beginneth the Senaries by substraction. 1653 H. More Conject. Cabbal. (1713) 16 Wherefore God having thus compleated his work in the Senary, comprehending the whole Creation in Six orders of things, he ceased from ever creating any thing more. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies ii. xiv. 339 They will bring you Cold and Heat, Calm and Storm,..in one Senary of Days. 1693 Paschall in Phil. Trans. XVII. 816, I divided the νυχθήµερον into four Senaries of Hours. |
2. Prosody. = senarius.
| 1579 G. Harvey Two other Lett. (1580) 64 This foote [sc. the trochee]..is..quite thrust out of doores in a pure and iust Senarie. 1828 Classical Jrnl. XXXVII. 127 ἀλλ' ὅµως are words frequently employed by Euripides at the end of an Iambic senary. |
▪ II. senary, a.
(ˈsiːnərɪ, ˈsɛnərɪ)
[ad. L. sēnārius: see senarius.]
Pertaining to the number six. senary scale: the scale of arithmetical notation of which the radix is six. senary division: division into six parts.
| 1661 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 2), Senarie, that contains or belongs to the number six. 1721 Bailey, Senary, that which consists of Six. 1755 Johnson, Senary, belonging to the number six; containing six. 1810 P. Barlow in Nicholson's Jrnl. XXV. 183 Thus, in the binary scale only two characters are wanted, namely 1 and 0; in the senary, six; in the decimal, ten. Ibid. 186 Transform 11111 to the senary scale. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 81 The Cephalotus of Labillardière, offers a remarkable exception to the usual characters..in the senary division of its flower [etc.]. 1881 Bauerman Syst. Min. ii. 11 The only other class of symmetry possible in crystals is senary or hexagonal, corresponding to a rotation of one-sixth of a revolution, such as that of a regular hexagonal prism about its axis. |