"Sesqui" is 3/2 in Latin, and it was in common use; "Quasqui" for 5/4 apparently existed as well, but I've never seen it in period use. (I have seen it in modern use: "quasquicentennial" for a 125th anniversary.) Charles Greathouse Analyst/Programmer Case Western Reserve University On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 2:04 PM, Alex Bellos <alexbellos@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm pretty sure that in Hindi there are separate words for 1.5 and 2.5, so children in Delhi and Chennai will be able to celebrate their one and a halfth and two and a halfth...but even there the fifth and a halfth will be a tongue twister
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On 4 Apr 2014, at 18:59, Allan Wechsler <acwacw@gmail.com> wrote:
Maybe I'm overanalyzing it like the old curmudgeon I am, but the whole fifth-and-a-halfth birthday thing is not making sense to me. Would your call 5.5 the fifth-and-a-halfth integer? The day Eliana exceeds 5.5 years of age isn't *any* kind of birthday, just as 5.5 isn't any kind of integer. Celebrating it seems fine to me (a year is a very long time to a little kid), but we should come up with a different name for it. I guess I'm agreeing with Mike Speciner.
On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 1:43 PM, Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net> wrote:
Her 2004th unbirthday?
--Dan
On Apr 4, 2014, at 6:55 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
My daughter Eliana will be five-and-a-half tomorrow.
We are wondering: will tomorrow be her five-and-a-halfth birthday, or her fifth-and-a-half birthday?
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