Adjacent Words

Quaternion definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

QUATERN'ION, n. [L. quaternio, from quatuor, four.]
1. The number four.
2. A file of four soldiers. Acts 12.
QUATERN'ION, v.t. To divide into files or companies.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one [syn: four, 4, IV, tetrad, quatern, quaternion, quaternary, quaternity, quartet, quadruplet, foursome, Little Joe]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English quaternyoun, from Late Latin quaternion-, quaternio, from Latin quaterni four each, from quater four times; akin to Latin quattuor four — more at four Date: 14th century 1. a set of four parts, things, or persons 2. a. a generalized complex number that is composed of a real number and a vector and that depends on one real and three imaginary units b. plural the calculus of quaternions

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a set of four. 2 Math. a complex number of the form w + xi + yj + zk, where w, x, y, z are real numbers and i, j, k are imaginary units that satisfy certain conditions. Etymology: ME f. LL quaternio -onis (as QUATERNARY)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Quaternion Qua*ter"ni*on, n. [L. quaternio, fr. quaterni four each. See Quaternary.] 1. The number four. [Poetic] 2. A set of four parts, things, or person; four things taken collectively; a group of four words, phrases, circumstances, facts, or the like. Delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers. --Acts xii. 4. Ye elements, the eldest birth Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run. --Milton. The triads and quaternions with which he loaded his sentences. -- Sir W. Scott. 3. A word of four syllables; a quadrisyllable. 4. (Math.) The quotient of two vectors, or of two directed right lines in space, considered as depending on four geometrical elements, and as expressible by an algebraic symbol of quadrinomial form. Note: The science or calculus of quaternions is a new mathematical method, in which the conception of a quaternion is unfolded and symbolically expressed, and is applied to various classes of algebraical, geometrical, and physical questions, so as to discover theorems, and to arrive at the solution of problems. --Sir W. R. Hamilton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Quaternion Qua*ter"ni*on, v. t. To divide into quaternions, files, or companies. --Milton.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

a band of four soldiers. Peter was committed by Herod to the custody of four quaternions, i.e., one quaternion for each watch of the night (Acts 12:4). Thus every precaution was taken against his escape from prison. Two of each quaternion were in turn stationed at the door (12:6), and to two the apostle was chained according to Roman custom.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kwa-tur'-ni-un (tetradion): The name given to a company of four soldiers of Herod's army (Ac 12:4). To four such companies Peter had been handed over, who would take their turn of acting as guard over the prisoner, each of the four watches of the night according to Roman reckoning, which Herod Agrippa I would follow. In the castle of Antonia Peter was thus closely secured, in order that Herod, who had already killed James, the brother of John, with the sword (Ac 12:2), might, after the solemnities of the Passover, make sure of his death likewise. On the night before his intended execution he was sleeping in his cell between two soldiers, "bound with two chains," his left hand chained to one and his right to the other. The other two soldiers of the quaternion mounted guard before the door, and are spoken of as "the first and the second guard" (Ac 12:10) whom Peter and his angel guide had to pass on the way to liberty. The Greek word thus rendered is not found in the Septuagint or anywhere else in the New Testament.

T. Nicol.