Septenary

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /sÉ›pˈtiːnəɹi/

Origin

From the Latin septēnārius ("consisting of seven each"), from septēnī ("seven each”, “seven at a time") + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary).

Full definition of septenary

Adjective

1. Consisting of or containing seven.
2. Of seventh rank or order.
• 1899 October, W J McGee, The Beginning of Mathematics, in American Anthropologist 1(4), page 657, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7294%28189910%292%3A1%3A4%3C646%3ATBOM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O... indeed if further evidence than that of bestial and savage counting were required to show that finger-numeration and the quinary system were not primeval, it would be afforded by the development of the senary-septenary system in so many lands.
3. Lasting seven years; continuing seven years.
• FullerSeptenary penance.

Noun

1. A group of seven things.
2. A period of seven years.
• 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 596:This idea was based on the doctrine that a man's body changed its character every seven years and that his life was thus made up of ‘septenaries’.
3. (music) The seven notes of the diatonic scale.