quattuor

• quattor (rare), quatuor (Medieval Latin)
• Roman numerals: IV or IIII or IIII^or

From Proto-Italic *kʷettwōr (*t duplicated preceding *-w-), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr, neuter plural of *kʷetwóres. Cognates include Sanskrit चतुर् (catur), Old Armenian չորք (čʻorkʻ), Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares), and Old English fēower (English four).

The change of *e to a is unexplained; the expected form would be *quettuor. One theory suggests contamination with the zero-grade form *kʷtwr̥-.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkʷat.tu.or/, [ˈkʷät̪ːuɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkwat.tu.or/, [ˈkwät̪ːuor]

quattuor (indeclinable)

1. four; 4
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.116–118:

     Iuppiter antiqui contraxit tempora veris perque hiemes aestusque et inaequalis autumnos et breve ver spatiis exegit quattuor annum.

     Venerable Jove brought together the time of spring and through winter, summer, variable autumn, and brief spring completed the year in four seasons.

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Leviticus.11.23:

     quicquid autem ex volucribus quattuor tantum habet pedes execrabile erit vobis

     But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you.

• Appendix:Latin cardinal numbers

• “quattuor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “quattuor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• quattuor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • four successive days: quattuor dies continui
    
  • to hold out for four months: obsidionem quattuor menses sustinere