zenzizenzic

English

Alternative forms

• zenzi zenzick

Etymology

Coined by Robert Recorde (as zenzizenzike) in his 1557 mathematics book The Whetstone of Witte, from the root word zenzic.

Noun

zenzizenzic (plural zenzizenzics)

1. (mathematics, obsolete) The fourth power of a number; the biquadrate.
   • 1701, Samuel Jeake, A compleat body of arithmetic, in four books, T. Newborough, page 200:

     Take the Zenzizenzike Number of the last Quotient Figure, and with the 3 numbers last above-mentioned, add them (duely placed one nearer than another to the Right Hand) into one total Gnonom, and subtract the same from the given Number : And if the number have more Pricks than 2, the work in the second, third, fourth and fifth Directions is to be repeated.

   • 1965, Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation: An Olio of Orthographical Oddities, page 253:

     While this is the least accurate of the four approximations discussed here, it has the charm that the numerator is the zenzizenzic of 4 […]

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:zenzizenzic.