[ad. late L. quaternitās (Augustine, etc.), f. quaternī four together: see -TY. Cf. F. quaternité.]
1. A set of four persons (esp. in the Godhead, in contrast to the Trinity) or of four things.
1529. More, Dyaloge, I. Wks. 145/1. He is bounden to beleue in ye trinite. And ye felowe beleueth in a quaternitie.
1603. Sir C. Heydon, Jud. Astrol., xx. 405. Antiquitie did deuide the elements into a treble quaternitie.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iv. § 36. 557. Not a Trinity, but a Quaternity, or Four Ranks and Degrees of Beings.
1702. Echard, Eccl. Hist., 349. [The Marcosians] instead of a Trinity … held a Quaternity composed of Ineffability, of Silence, of the Father, and of the Truth.
1830. J. Douglas, Truths Relig., iv. (1832), 185. Plato may be argued to have held either a trinity or a quaternity.
1889. Sat. Rev., 26 Oct., 475/1. A remarkable quaternity of great-grandmamma, grandmamma, mamma, and little daughter.
2. The fact or condition of being four in number, or an aggregate of four.
1839. Bailey, Festus, xix. (1852), 287. Some [held] that in mystical quaternity all Deity existed.
† 3. erron. A quarter. Obs. rare–1.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., V. xii. The first with divers … turnings wries, Cutting the town in four quaternities.
