a. and sb. Forms: 1 féowertéoða, -teoȝða, 3 fourteothe, fowrtuðe, 3–4 four-, south. vourteþe, fourtend, (3 four-, fortend), 4 faurtend, fourtenþe, -teneth, 6– fourteenth. [OE. féowertéoþa, f. féowertýne FOURTEEN on the analogy of téoþa tenth. (For the subsequent history of the forms cf. FIFTEENTH.)] The ordinal numeral belonging to the cardinal fourteen.
A. adj. in concord with sb. expressed; also ellipt. Fourteenth part: one of 14 equal parts into which a whole is divided.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., I. iv. (1890), 32. Se wæs feowerteoþa fram Agusto þam casere.
a. 1000. Martyrologium, 82. On þone feowerteoȝðan dæȝ þæs monðes bið þara haliȝra þrowung sancte Victores ond sancte Corónan.
a. 1225. Juliana, 79. Þe fowrtuðe Kalende of mearch þat is seoððen.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 408. Þe vourteþe day of Jenyuer vor honger þanne hii wende.
c. 1300. St. Brandan, 330.
| And he thretteoth [brother] fram the to the ylle of ankres schal wende, | |
| And the fourteothe to helle al quic, and beo ther withouten ende? |
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 6581.
| Þe fourtend payne despayre es cald, | |
| Þat þe synful sal ay in hert hald. |
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 181. The fourteenth Chapter expoundeth the same text by S. Augustine, and Cyrill.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., II. vii. § 3. The fourteenth of Nisan was passed before the sanctification of the Temple was finished.
1800. W. Saunders, Min. Waters, 18. The willow and other aquatic trees, though their wood exhibits a pretty firm texture, contain only about a fourteenth part of their weight of solid matter, all the rest being resolvable into water.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 44. When the Company proceeded to rebuild, they no longer did so in the massive and imposing style of the fourteenth century.
B. sb. a. A fourteenth part. b. Mus. The octave or replicate of the seventh.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 71. Phi. Which distances make discord or dissonant sounds? Ma.… A ninth, a leuenth, a fourteenth, &c.
1800. Young, in Phil. Trans., XCI. 58–9. If the axis of the eye were elongated one-seventh, its transverse diameter must be diminished one-fourteenth, and the semi-diameter would be shortened a thirtieth of an inch.
Hence Fourteenthly adv., in the fourteenth place.
a. 1642. Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, III. (1704), 322/1. Fourteenthly, They ought to Sign Estimates.
1691–8. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1711), III. 170. And Fourteenthly, That even our Blessed Lord himself was thus treated.
