different between fourth vs obex

English

Etymology

From Middle English fourthe, an alteration (due to four) of ferthe, from Old English f?orþa, f?owerþa, from Proto-West Germanic *feurþ?, from Proto-Germanic *fedurþô, equivalent to four +? -th.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f???/
• (General American) enPR: fôrth, IPA^(key): /f???/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /fo(?)??/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /fo??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)?
• Homophone: forth

Adjective

fourth (not comparable)

1. The ordinal form of the number four.

Usage notes

Abbreviations: 4th, 4^th, IVth, IIIIth; (in names of monarchs and popes, and formal names in English) IV, IV.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

fourth (plural fourths)

1. (not used in the plural) The person or thing in the fourth position.
2. (chiefly American) A quarter, one of four equal parts of a whole.
3. (not used in the plural) The fourth gear of an engine.
4. (music) A musical interval which spans four degrees of the diatonic scale, for example C to F (C D E F).

Synonyms

• (quarter): fourth part, quarter, ¼

Derived terms

Translations

Middle English

Adjective

fourth

1. Alternative form of ferthe

English

Etymology

From Latin obex (“barrier, wall”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???.b?ks/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?o??b?ks/

Noun

obex (plural obices)

1. (anatomy) A small, crescentic fold of white matter that covers the inferior angle of the floor of the fourth ventricle.

References

• “obex”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “obex”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).

Latin

Etymology

From obici? (“to throw or put before or towards”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?o?.beks/, [?o?b?ks?] or IPA^(key): /?o.beks/, [??b?ks?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?o.beks/, [???b?ks]

In Classical Latin, the forms of this word built on the oblique stem obic- may have originally been pronounced with an unwritten /j/ sound, making the first syllable of the word /ob/ (which contains the short vowel /o/ and scans as a heavy syllable because of the coda consonant /b/). For example, in Attic Nights 4.17, Aulus Gellius indicates that the learned grammarian Sulpicius Apollinaris read obicibus with a short o and a doubled ("gemina") letter i where it occurs in Vergil's Georgics with heavy-light-light-heavy scansion; this implies a pronunciation /ob.ji.ki.bus/. The same situation of a single letter I potentially representing a sequence of the consonant /j/ and short vowel /i/ is found with the verb obici? and a number of other prefixed verbs derived from iaci?.

Gellius criticizes as ignorant those who pronounce obici?bat and subices with long vowels (i.e. /o?/ and /u?/) for the sake of the meter, a comment which implies that pronunciations with /ob.ji/ and /sub.ji/ were not universally used for derivatives of iacio during the second century, and may have been simplified in normal speech to /o.bi/ and /su.bi/ for for many speakers of that time.

There is less evidence about the Classical Latin pronunciation of the nominative singular form obex as the word was rarely used in this form.

Noun

??bex m or f (genitive ??bicis); third declension

1. bolt, bar; barrier, wall
   • Publius Vergilius Maro, Georgica, 2.1

     unde tremor terris, qua vi maria alta tumescant / obicibus ruptis rursus que in se ipsa residant

2. hindrance, impediment, obstacle

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Related terms

• obici?

Descendants

• English: obex
• Portuguese: óbice
• Spanish: óbice

References

• obex in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• obex in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• obex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• obex in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• obex in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin