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A.Word.A.Day--sexagesimal

sexagesimal (sek-suh-JES-uh-muhl) adjective

Of, relating to, or based on the number 60.

[From Latin sexagesimus, sixtieth.]

"(Owen) Gingerich noted that `most of our time units come from the ancient Babylonian sexagesimal system. Thus we have 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute, and so on.'" Robert Cooke, Easy Fix for Millennial Confusion / 2000 or 2001? Celebrate both!, Newsday, 6 Apr 1999.

Does sex + lust = vice? Well, we won't comment on that here, but what we can tell you is that adding lustrum to sexagesimal does not result in a vicennial. Sexagesimal you just learned, lustrum is a period of five years, and vicennial is twenty years. And now we don't have to tell you that we are going to show you words related to numbers this week. -Anu

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