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▪ I. quincunx, n.|ˈkwɪnkʌŋks|
[a. L. quincunx (quincunc-em) five-twelfths, f. quinque five + uncia a twelfth, ounce. Hence also F. quinconce († -cunce, -cunx): cf. quincunce.]
1. Astrol. An aspect of planets in which these are at a distance of 5 signs or 150 degrees from each other. rare.
1647Lilly Chr. Astrol. iii. 32 One Kepler, a learned man, hath added some new ones, as follow, viz.: A Quincunx Vc consisting of 150 degrees. 1686Goad Celest. Bodies ii. iv. 199 Whereas if {male} be about the Quincunx of Sol, a Sign distant from the Oppositional Line, he is in a chill posture.
2. An arrangement or disposition of five objects so placed that four occupy the corners, and the fifth the centre, of a square or other rectangle; a set of five things arranged in this manner.
This sense, which also existed in L., is app. due to the use of five dots or dashes, thus arranged, to denote five-twelfths of an as.
1658Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus iii. 122 The single Quincunx of the Hyades upon the neck of Taurus. 1750Phil. Trans. XLVII. 107 These cellules are..disposed in the manner of a quincunx. 1785Martyn Rousseau's Bot. vi. (1794) 68 The florets..are placed very thick..in form of a quincunx, or the checks upon a chess-board. 1858W. Clark tr. Van der Hoeven's Zool. (1866) II. 64 Teeth crowded, arranged in a quincunx.
b. spec. as a basis of arrangement in planting trees, either in a single set of five or in combinations of this; a group of five trees so planted.
1664Evelyn Pomona 15 [The orchard] may assume the Ornament of Cyrus, and flourish in the Quincunx. 1731Pope Ep. Burlington 80 His Quincunx darkens, his Espaliers meet. 1782V. Knox Ess. clviii. (1819) III. 189 Plantations perfectly regular, and laid out in quincunxes. 1880C. R. Markham Peruv. Bark 20 For every tree felled, the bark collector should plant a quincunx.
c. Bot. Quincuncial æstivation.
1832Lindley Introd. Bot. 411.
d. attrib. In the form, on the principle of, a quincunx, as quincunx arrangement, quincunx fashion, quincunx form, quincunx order.
1707Woodward Acct. Roman Urns (1713) §19 In some the squares were..ranged in a quincunx order. 1759tr. Duhamel's Husb. i. vii. (1762) 17 These heaps are disposed in a quincunx form. 1802W. Forsyth Fruit Trees xxiii. (1824) 345 If trees are planted in the quincunx order. 188319th Cent. Nov. 871 Where trees are planted in straight lines, on the quincunx arrangement, that is every four trees forming not a square but a diamond.
3. A cruciform reliquary having five equal parts, which can be closed up by folding the outer parts over the central one. (Fallows Suppl. Dict. 1886.)
Hence quinˈcunxial a. = quincuncial. rare.
1676Worlidge Cyder (1691) 100 That the one may stand against the space last preceding in a quincunxial order. 1835J. S. Henslow Descr. Phys. Bot. 130 The ‘quincunxial’ arrangement, where the appendages [on the stem] range in five ranks.
▪ II. ˈquincunx, v. rare.
[f. the n.]
trans. To put in quincunx arrangement.
1847Simmonds' Colonial Mag. June 165 Some [say] that the bushes are not near enough together, and that I ought to quincunx them. |