quincentennium

English

Etymology

From New Latin quincentennium (“500-year period”). Compare the classical Latin form quingenti (“500”). Equivalent to quin- (“five”) +‎ centennium (“century, 100-year period”). Cognate with quincentenary and quincentennial.

Noun

quincentennium (plural quincentennia)

1. (rare) A period of five hundred years, half a millennium.

   Coordinate terms: annum, biennium, triennium, quadrennium, quinquennium, sexennium, septennium, octennium, novennium, decennium, vicennium, tricennium, centennium, millennium, decamillennium, centimillennium, millionennium

   • 1972, Scottish International, V, page 11:

     And Mr John Graham, editor of The New Shetlander and one of the most articulate ideologues of the 1967 revolution, reinterpreted the problem of “Social Change during the Quincentennium” (1469–1969) accordingly.

   • 1972, Wilfred Jenks, “Realism and Magnanimity in the Law of Nations”, in The American Journal of International Law, LXVI, № 4 (September 1972), page 316:

     In more leisurely days there were Egyptian millenia^[sic], Greek and Roman quincentennia, and Spanish, French, and British centuries.

References

• “quincentennial, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2022.