quadragene
quadragene noun: an indulgence from 40 days of fasting or similar abstinence, especially during Lent; (later) various equivalent indulgences against punishment in Purgatory.
Noun (1)
quadragene (plural quadragenes or quadragenae)
- An indulgence from 40 days of fasting or similar abstinence, especially during Lent; (later) various equivalent indulgences against punishment in Purgatory.
- You have with much labour, and some charge, purchased to your self so many Quadragenes or Lents of pardon; that is, you have bought off the penances of so many times forty dayes. It is well; but were you well advised, it may be your Quadragenes are not Carenes; that is, are not a quitting the...1664, Jeremy Taylor, A Disswasive from Popery to the People of Ireland, page 93
- Careen (and its Latin source, quadragene) no longer made sense in the fifteenth century because priests no longer distributed punishments in forty-day parcels, the duration of Lent... the culture had shifted from brief punishments on earth to long punishments in the afterlife, in Purgatory. But the...2016, Kathryn M. Rudy, Rubrics, Images, & Indulgences in Late Medieval Netherlandish Manuscripts, pages 47–8
- An indulgence provided by 40 days of fasting.
- Actors and spectators were often granted indulgences; generally^([sic]) to the scale of one Quadragene (a forty-day fast on bread and water in return for divine grace).2001, Erika Fischer-Lichte, translated by Jo Riley, History of European Drama and Theatre, page 47
Noun (2) capitalized: Quadragene
Quadragene (plural Quadragenes or Quadragenae)
- Alternative letter-case form of quadragene.
Synonyms of quadragene
Forms of quadragene
| plural | quadragenes |
|---|---|
| plural | quadragenae |
| alternative form | Quadragene |
| plural | Quadragenes |
| plural | Quadragenae |
Origin of quadragene
From Late Latin quadragēna (“40-day period, Lent”), from Latin quadrāgēnus (“40 each”), from quadrāgintā (“four tens, forty”). Doublet of carene.
Questions about quadragene
- What does quadragene mean?
- Quadragene means an indulgence from 40 days of fasting or similar abstinence, especially during Lent; (later) various equivalent indulgences against punishment in Purgatory.
- What part of speech is quadragene?
- Quadragene is a noun.
- What is the plural of quadragene?
- The plural of quadragene is quadragenes.
Words near quadragene in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: quadragene (page history and authors); Quadragene (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “quadragene.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quadragene. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.