What is the term for a 750th anniversary

[Fitzer]

What is the term for a 750th anniversary, i.e. 200 yrs is a bi-centennial.

[Quizmonster]

I don't believe there are specific words for half-century anniversaries such as 350th, 750th etc. If you want one I've just 'made up', how about a 'terquatermillenial' anniversary...ie a �-millennium one? (It would be '...quat...' and not '...quart...' That is, I haven't missed out the 'r' by mistake.)

[bernardo]

150th is the sesquicentenary, so it might be something like sextasesquicentenary

[Quizmonster]

The problem with the 'sesqui' prefix is that it is a contraction - of the Latin words 'semis' and 'que' - which means 'a half in addition'. In other words, it denotes a ratio of 1� to 1. Thus, 'sesquicentenary', 100 plus a half 100, works just fine as regards meaning 'pertaining to 150'. The problem comes when you try to apply it to any other half-century. For example, a 250th anniversary would have to have a base unit of 166.666 and a 350th one a base of 233.333 and so on. Try saying any of these in Latin! 750 is easier, since, by the same token, it needs the nice round base-unit of 500, giving 'sesquicinquecentenary'...ie belonging to the 500th plus half the 500th'.

Since you'd be unlikely to find any of the three words for 750th you've been offered so far in a dictionary, one has to ask, Fitzer, what you want such a word for, given that '750th anniversary' works perfectly adequately!

[Fitzer]

Ta QM et al, it cropped up in conversation re. the 750th anniversary of Cowbridge in S. Wales this year. I pooh-poohed this and pointed out that my home town of Saffron Walden had celebrated the 750th anniversary of its market charter in 1984 (I think it was) and had used a less than snappy term to denote it which I couldn't remember and couldn't find on Google, hence the question. Your second stab at it sounds a bit like the one that was used but I can't be sure.

[bernardo]

QM's suggestion of "sesqui-cinque-centenary" is brillig, but a 500th anniversay is (i think) a "quinquecentenary", so maybe it should be "sesqui-quinque-centenary" rather than "sesqui-cinque-centenary" :-)

[Quizmonster]

Good grief! Imagine my putting a French spelling into the midst of all this frenzied Latinising. Quel plonqueur!

[bernardo]

No, Quizzo, you plonkanto - "cinque" is Italiano, not Froggish. ["plonkanto" is "plonker" in Esperanto]

[Quizmonster]

Surely the Italians didn't have anything to do with the 'Cinque ports', B, did they? I believe the usage there is - perhaps mistakenly - based on Old French pronunciation if not spelling, although I quite appreciate that 'cinque', as in cinquecento', etc is modern Italian. Whatever...are we all happy with the jointly arrived-at 'sesquiquinquecentenary'? (Too many Q's for my liking, but what the hey!)

[bernardo]

No actually. I think it should be called "750th anniversary" so as not to confuse people. Or sesquisemimillenary. Or if the people in Saffron Walden and Cowbridge are silly enough to be bothered about it, let's confuse them and call it a "tercentenary" just for the hel of it.