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Pedants' corner

How can you have 6 quadrants?!

9 replies

jackstini · 21/05/2025 21:19

Mind befuddled

How can you have 6 quadrants?!
OP posts:
Annascaul · 21/05/2025 21:23

Haha!

queenmeadhbh · 21/05/2025 21:25

Although it technically means one of the four areas on a graph, it has just come to mean “area”. So a city could have 5 quadrants. A bit like “quarter”. You can have more than four quarters when it means area of a city.

BeNiceWhenItsFinished · 21/05/2025 21:35

Our hobby group's annual show used to have circular tables divided into quarters for each member's display. We tended to refer to the tables themselves as 'quadrants', and would have about five of them. I know what you mean though.

What gets me is 'Up To Half Price Off' offers in shops.

ErrolTheDragon · 21/05/2025 22:11

queenmeadhbh · 21/05/2025 21:25

Although it technically means one of the four areas on a graph, it has just come to mean “area”. So a city could have 5 quadrants. A bit like “quarter”. You can have more than four quarters when it means area of a city.

Not in Pedants’ Corner you can’t!

Is the use of ‘quarter’ for areas of a city related to the geometrical meaning or to the ‘living quarters’ one…I need to look up the etymology of that.

queenmeadhbh · 21/05/2025 22:32

ErrolTheDragon · 21/05/2025 22:11

Not in Pedants’ Corner you can’t!

Is the use of ‘quarter’ for areas of a city related to the geometrical meaning or to the ‘living quarters’ one…I need to look up the etymology of that.

Edited

I suspect they both come from French quartiers!

ErrolTheDragon · 21/05/2025 22:35

queenmeadhbh · 21/05/2025 22:32

I suspect they both come from French quartiers!

Yes… and it seems the word has been going adrift for a while :
The word's connection with "four" loosened in Middle English and by 15c. expressions such as six-quartered for "six-sided" are found.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/quarter

etymonline logo

Quarter - Etymology, Origin & Meaning

Originating c.1300 from Old French quartier and Latin quartarius, "quarter" means one-fourth part, to divide into four parts, or mercy shown to a defeated foe.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/quarter

BlahBlahBittyBlah · 21/05/2025 22:37

I always wondered why my town has five quarters! I just assumed someone at town planning had failed maths gcse 😆

CheeseNPickle3 · 22/05/2025 08:00

You can also have servants' quarters and you can be quartered - as in given accommodation - which seems to be unrelated to 1/4

I think quadrants really ought to come in fours though.

jackstini · 22/05/2025 21:47

Well I may have learned something! Still twists my brain though…

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