quaternity
(kwəˈtɜːnɪtɪ)
[ad. late L. quaternitās (Augustine, etc.), f. quaternī four together: see -ty. Cf. F. quaternité.]
1. A set of four persons (esp. in the Godhead, in contrast to the Trinity) or of four things.
| 1529 More Dyaloge i. Wks. 145/1 He is bounden to beleue in y⊇ trinite. And y⊇ felowe beleueth in a quaternitie. 1603 Sir C. Heydon Jud. Astrol. xx. 405 Antiquitie did deuide the elements into a treble quaternitie. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. §36. 557 Not a Trinity, but a Quaternity, or Four Ranks and Degrees of Beings. 1702 Echard Eccl. Hist. 349 [The Marcosians] instead of a Trinity..held a Quaternity composed of Ineffability, of Silence, of the Father, and of the Truth. 1830 J. Douglas Truths Relig. iv. (1832) 185 Plato may be argued to have held either a trinity or a quaternity. 1889 Sat. Rev. 26 Oct. 475/1 A remarkable quaternity of great-grandmamma, grandmamma, mamma, and little daughter. |
2. The fact or condition of being four in number, or an aggregate of four.
| 1839 Bailey Festus xix. (1852) 287 Some [held] that in mystical quaternity all Deity existed. |
† 3. erron. A quarter. Obs. rare—1.
| 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. v. xii, The first with divers..turnings wries, Cutting the town in four quaternities. |