Entry: quorum (n.)
In context: "'Quorum on the decay-type odor.'"
Definition: A fixed minimum number of members of an assembly or society that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting valid.
Other: I had expected the etymology to be more interesting, but nothing too neat here:
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman quorum select body of (usually eminent) justices of the peace, every member of which had to be present to constitute a deciding body (1437 or earlier; the word is apparently not attested in continental French until much later (1672, originally with reference to a body of justices of the peace in England)) and its etymon classical Latin quōrum, lit. ‘of whom’ (genitive plural of quī who: see who pron.), from the wording of commissions in which certain persons were specially designated as members of a body by the words quorum vos..unum (duos, etc.) esse volumus ‘of whom we will that you..be one (two, etc.)’
SNOOT score: 1
Page: 672
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
Definitive Jest is a vocabulary-building and SNOOT-approved word-of-the-day blog centered around David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
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