Chapter Quarter-days in England and Ireland:- to Queen's Ware of Q by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Quarter-days in England and Ireland:- to Queen's Ware

Quarter-days in England and Ireland:-
   (1) New Style: Lady Day (March 25th), Midsummer Day (June 24th), Michaelmas Day (September 29th), and Christmas Day (December 25th).
   (2) Old Style: Old Lady Day (April 6th), Old Midsummer Day (July 6th), Old Michaelmas Day (October 11th), and Old Christmas Day (January 6th).
   Quarter-days in Scotland:-
   Candlemas Day (February 2nd), Whit-Sunday (May 15th), Lammas Day (August 1st), and Martinmas Day (Nov. 11).

Quarter Waggoner A book of sea-charts. Waggoner, or rather Baron von Waggonaer, is a folio volume of sea-charts, pointing out the coasts, rocks, routes, etc. Dalrymple's Charts are called The English Waggoner. “Quarter” is a corruption of quarto.

Quarters Residence or place of abode; as, winter quarters, the place where an army lodges during the winter months. We say “this quarter of the town,” meaning this district or part; the French speak of the Latin Quartier- i.e. the district or part of Paris where the medical schools, etc., are located; the Belgians speak of quartiers à louer lodgings to let; and bachelors in England often say, “Come to my quarters”- i.e. apartments. All these are from the French verb écarter (to set apart).

“There shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen ... in all thy quarters [any of thy houses].”- Exodus xiii. 7.

Quarterdeck The upper deck of a ship from the main-mast to the poop; if no poop, then from the main-mast to the stern. In men-of-war it is used as a promenade by officers only.

Quartermaster The officer whose duty it is to attend to the quarters of the soldiers. He superintends the issue of stores, food, and clothing. (See Quarters .)
   As a nautical term, a quartermaster is a petty officer who, besides other duties, attends to the steering of the ship.

Quartered (See Drawn .)

Quarto A book half the size of folio- i.e. where each sheet is folded into quarters or four leaves. 4to is the contraction. (The Italian, libro in quarto; French, in quarto; from Latin quartus.)

Quarto-Decimans, who, after the decision of the Nicene Council, maintained that Easter ought to be held on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month near the vernal equinox, whether that day fell on a Sunday or not.

Quashee A cant generic name of a negro; so called from a negro named Quassi. (See Quassia .)

Quasi (Latin). Something which is not the real thing, but may be accepted in its place; thus a
   Quasi contract is not a real contract, but something which may be accepted as a contract, and has the force of one.
   Quasi tenant. The tenant of a house sub-let.

Quasimodo A foundling, hideously deformed, but of amazing strength, in Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris.

Quasimodo Sunday The first Sunday after Easter; so called because the “Introit” of the day begins with these words:- “Quasi modo geniti infantes” (1 Pet. ii. 2). Also called “Low Sunday,” being the first Sunday after the grand ceremonies of Easter.

Quassia An American plant, or rather genus of plants, named after Quassi, a negro.

“Linnaeus applied this name to a tree of Surinam in honour of a negro, Quassi, who employed its bark as a remedy for fever; and enjoyed such a reputation among the natives as to be almost worshipped by some,”- Lindley and Moore: Treatise of Botany, part ii. p. 947.)

Quatorziennes (fourteeners). Persons of recognised position in society who hold themselves in readiness to accept an invitation to dinner when otherwise the number of guests would be thirteen. (See Thirteen .)