zenzizenzic

zenzizenzic

English

Etymology

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

Noun

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, printed for 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 of use of this term, see Citations:zenzizenzic.

References

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