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Today's Word "Quasquicentennial"

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Published in Vocabulary

quasquicentennial \kwah-skweh-sin-TE-ni-yehl\ (adjective) - Pertaining to 125 or 125th; the celebration of 125 years.

"Lawrence, this is the quasquicentennial time I've requested that you clean up your room."

 

Apparently, introduced for the city of Delavan, Illinois' rather odd 125th anniversary of its founding celebrated around 1962. Today's word is queerly contrived from qua(dran)s "quarter" + que "and" + cent "hundred" + ann- "year" + the suffix -ial. Rather than simply nicking the Latin word in the usual way, which would be "+centenary" from Latin +centenarius "+hundredth," Latin cent-um (100) has been attached to English -ennial, retrieved from "biennial," then prefixed with often questionable prefixes like "quasqui-."


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