a. and sb. [ad. L. quīnāri-us, f. quīnī distrib. to quinque five: cf. F. quinaire.]
A. adj. Pertaining to, characterized by, the number five; consisting of five (things or parts). Quinary system, a principle of division in zoology, introduced by Macleay in 1819, but now discarded.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1342. Plato hath reduced the number of five worldes to the five primitive figures of regular bodies, saying, that God in ordaining and describing the whole world used the Quinarie construction.
1682. H. More, Annot. Glanvil’s Lux Orient, 180. Every number, suppose, Binary, Quinary, Ternary, is such a setled number and no other.
1788. T. Taylor, Proclus, I. xcvi. (Disser.), The quinary, and septenary numbers are especially attributed to the soul.
1826. Kirby & Spence, Entomol., Let. xlvii. IV. 399. Though Mr. MacLeay regards this quinary arrangement of natural objects as very general, it does not appear that he looks upon it as absolutely universal.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), I. 93. Designating the successive numbers … by means of names, framed according to the decimal, quinary or vigenary scale.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 810/1. On the Continent the Quinary System has never found favour, and it has now few if any followers in this country.
B. sb. 1. A set of five; a compound consisting of five things. Now rare.
1651. J. F[reake], Agrippa’s Occ. Philos., 391. Angels, who might rule the signs, triplicities, decans, quinaries, degrees and Stars.
1678. Cudworth, Intellect. Syst., I. iv. § 36. 625. The juniour Platonists … did … no longer acknowledge a Trinity, but either a quaternity, or a quinary, or more, of Divine Hypostases.
1889. Pop. Sci. Monthly, XXXIV. 740. Quaternaries,… quinaries, sextaries, etc., according as the number of the constituent elements increases.
† 2. a. A Roman silver coin, of the value of half a denarius. b. A small Roman medal. Obs. rare.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The gold quinary is the half of a gold medal. Ibid., The quinaries were of a finer and more finished coin than the other medals.
