Quadruplication

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process in which one item is reproduced fourfold involves creating four identical copies of that original entity
2. This phenomenon refers to the creation of four separate instances from a single source in a replicative manner
3. The action of producing four identical versions from one original item

Etymology: Quadruplication is a plain formation, built in English from the Latin "quadruplex," meaning fourfold, and the suffix "-ation," which turns a verb into a noun of action. The verb behind it is "quadruplicate," to make four times as many or to make four copies of something. That verb was formed the same way: "quadru-" from Latin "quadruplus" (fourfold), with "-ate" added on the model of other English verbs ending in "-ate." The pattern is an old one. English has a family of words built on the same Latin numerical stem, including "duplicate," "triplicate," and "quadruplicate," and the noun forms follow the regular "-ation" pattern, giving "duplication," "triplication," and "quadruplication." Each was assembled in English from Latin parts, so the word's meaning stays close to its parts: the act of making four of the same thing.

Synonyms: fourfold, quadrupling