septennium

First attested in 1868; from the Latin septennium, a collateral form of septuennium (“a period of seven years”).

• (Received Pronunciation, UK) IPA^(key): /sɛpˈtɛnɪəm/

septennium (plural septennia)

1. A period of seven years.
   • 1868, Mark Pattison, Suggestions on Academical Organisation with Especial Reference to Oxford, section VI: “Of the Studies Preliminary to the Degree”, § 4: ‘Liberal Studies (Arts) and Special Studies (Science)’, page 265:

     It might be sufficient to answer, that, of the septennium required for the arts degree in the old system the greater portion is now spent at school.

• (period of seven years): septenniad (rare)

• septenniad (rare)
• septennial
• septennian (obsolete, rare)
• (6-year period): sexennium
• (8-year period): octennium

• “Septenʹnium” on page 355/3 of John Ogilvie’s Supplement to the Imperial Dictionary, English, Technological and Scientific (1855)
• “‖Septennium” on page 479/3 of part ii (S–Sh; edited by Henry Bradley) of volume VIII (Q–Sh; 1st ed., 1914) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles
• “‖septennium” in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed., 1989)

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /sepˈten.ni.um/, [sepˈten.ni.ũ]

septennium n (genitive septenniī); second declension

1. Alternative spelling of septuennium

Second declension.

• septennĭum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• septennĭum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette, page 1,426/2