Sixtieths

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fractional part representing one of sixty equal segments of a whole; the ordinal number indicating the position after fifty-ninth; a term used in measurements to denote a quantity divided into sixty equal parts
2. Denoting an individual segment when a whole is divided into sixty equal sections; ranking in sequence as the 60th item or entity; a unit of measure representing one sixty-second of a whole
3. Referring to any one of the sixty equal divisions of something; indicating the order of sixty in a series; a fractional measurement that signifies one part of sixty total portions

Etymology: "Sixtieths" is simply the plural of "sixtieth," the ordinal number for sixty, so it is the form you use for several such fractions at once, such as three sixtieths. The singular "sixtieth" is built from "sixty" and the suffix "-eth," which English used to form ordinal numbers from the Middle English period onward. The older form was "sixtithe," and it shows the ordinal ending at work: "sixty" plus "-the" became "sixtithe" before shifting to the modern spelling. The word's ancestry is therefore entirely native to English, with no borrowing from Latin or French needed. Its shape echoes the pattern of ordinals like "twentieth" and "thirtieth," which were formed the same way and share the same suffix, so "sixtieths" belongs to a whole family of counting words that grew out of the cardinal numbers.