quadrivial

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin quadriviālis. By surface analysis, quadrivium +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwɒdˈɹɪvi.əl/

Noun

quadrivial (plural quadrivials)

1. Any of the four "liberal arts" making up the quadrivium.
   • c. 1521, John Skelton, Speke Parott:

     Tryuyals, & quatryuyals, ſo ſore now they appayre
     That Parrot the Popagay, hath pytye to beholde
     How the reſt of good lernyng, is roufled vp & trold

   • 1691, [Anthony Wood], Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the Most Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from the Fifteenth Year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the End of the Year 1690. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Tho[mas] Bennet […]:

     St. Edmund was bred in this University in the Trivials and Quadrivials till he was Professor of Arts

Adjective

quadrivial (not comparable)

1. Having four ways meeting in a point.
   • 1612, Ben Jonson, Epigrams:

     quadrivial streets

2. Relating to the quadrivium.
   • 1893, Wilfrid Wallace, Life of St. Edmund of Canterbury: From Original Sources, page 85:

     […] but he took the greatest interest in the Quadrivial Curriculum, that is, mathematical science, on account of its intrinsic charms and the rigour of its demonstration.

References

“quadrivial”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.