Quadrants

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A spatial division of a two-dimensional plane into four equal parts, typically used in mathematics or cartography
2. A term describing the regions created by intersecting lines that delineate areas for easier analysis or representation
3. The four distinct sections of a coordinate system formed by the intersection of horizontal and vertical axes

Etymology: "Quadrants" is simply the plural of "quadrant," so its story is really the story of the singular. The root is Latin "quadrāns," meaning a fourth part or quarter, and it passed into English through Old French "cadran" (which also gave us "cadran" in the sense of a dial). English had a second route as well: "quadrātum," Latin for a squared figure, reached Middle English as "quadrant" or "quadrante," and the two forms blended, so the word came to carry both the idea of a quarter and the idea of a square. The Latin source word was a counting term. A "quadrāns" was a quarter of a unit, most famously a quarter of the Roman "as," a bronze coin, and the same word served as a measure of weight and value. The quarter sense is the one still visible in "quadrants" as four equal sections, the meaning the plural keeps today.

Synonyms: sections, segments