a. and sb. Also 5 quinqueniale. [f. L. quinquennis + -AL, or ad. L. quinquennālis: cf. biennial, centennial, etc.]
A. adj. 1. Lasting, continuing, holding office, etc., for five years.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xii. (1885), 140. When the reaume gaff to thair kyng a quinsime and a desime quinqueniale [1532 MS. Digby quinquinall].
1601. Bp. W. Barlow, Defence, 30. So splendently appearing these 60 yeares together (onely a quinquennial Eclyps … excepted).
a. 1648. Ld. Herbert, Hen. VIII. (1683), 79. To procure a general League among Christian Princes (or at least a quinquennial Truce).
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 32, ¶ 2. I find by my quinquennial Observations that we shall never get Ladies enough to make a Party.
1822. T. Taylor, Apuleius, 290. [He] placed me among the quinquennial Decurions.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., V. xv. 507. The fifteen ‘gentlemen’ thus chosen constituted the quinquennial senate of Maryland, and themselves filled up any vacancy that might occur in their number during their term of five years.
b. Consisting of five years.
1884. Law Reports 12 Queen’s Bench Div. 393. The business profits made … during the quinquennial period.
2. Occurring every fifth year.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 105. The Quinquennall feasts and solemnities of the … Cæsars.
1687. in Magd. Coll. & Jas. II. (O. H. S.), 112. His visitations are … limited to quinquennial.
1749. G. West, trans. Pindar, Nemean Odes, xi. The great Quinquennial Festival of Jove.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., I. x. § 3. The population … in every quinquennial census.
1871. Alabaster, Wheel of Law, p. xxxiv. He orders his subjects to hold quinquennial assemblies.
3. Five years old (Blount, Glossogr., 1656).
B. sb. 1. A period of five years.
2. A magistrate holding office for five years.
1895. Oracle Encycl., II. 118/2. They had duumvirs, quinquennials, and decurions, in imitation of the consuls, censors, and prætors of Rome.
Hence Quinquennially adv., every five years. Also Quinquennialist, one who advocates a (legislative) period of five years.
1727. in Bailey, vol. II.
1816. G. S. Faber, Orig. Pagan Idol., II. 478. In one region annually, and in another quinquennially.
1868. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, i. (1870), 21. To provide … for the recitation of his songs … quinquennially at the Panathenaia.
1888. Times, 2 Feb., 5/3. On behalf of the quinquennialists, it was argued that the change was one of mere expediency.
