zenzizenzic

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Coined by Robert Recorde (as zenzizenzike) in his 1557 mathematics book The Whetstone of Witte, from the root word zenzic.[1]

Noun

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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.

References

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  1. ^ "Zenzizenzizenzic" - the eighth power of a number, Michael Quinion, World Wide Words, accessed 26/6/2010