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quincunx: msg#00009

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Subject: quincunx

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The Word of the Day for June 10 is:

quincunx \KWIN-kunks\ noun
: an arrangement of five things in a square or rectangle with one at each
corner and one in the middle

Example sentence:
The tables were arranged in a quincunx, with the hosting family at the
center table and guests at the four corner tables.

Did you know?
In ancient Rome a "quincunx" was a coin whose name comes from the Latin
roots "quinque," meaning "five," and "uncia," meaning "one twelfth." The weight
of the coin equaled five twelfths of a "libra," a unit of weight similar to
today's pound. The ancients used a pattern of five dots arranged like the spots
on dice as a symbol for the coin, and English speakers applied the word to
arrangements similar to that distinctive five-dot mark.







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