Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical A Roman coin worth one sixth of an as.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin.

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Examples

  • If we are looking for scientific apparatus, there is fornax a chemical furnace, microscopium, sextans and telescopium, and there is probably more that I have forgotten, but I don't know they belong to anyone in particular.

    Universe Puzzle No. 6 | Universe Today 2010

  • The people buried him by the contribution of a sextans from each person.

    The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 Titus Livius

  • In Rome and throughout Italy it had been sold at a sextans, and the contractors were bound to sell it at the old price in Rome but allowed to charge a higher price in the country towns and markets.

    The History of Rome, Vol. IV 1905

  • He was interred by the plebeians, each man contributing a sextans towards the expense.

    The History of Rome, Vol. I 1905

  • In this capacity he appears on the sextans of the old copper coinage, and under the empire he went into the provinces as the companion of Mars, since the merchant went side by side with the soldier.

    The Religion of Numa And Other Essays on the Religion of Ancient Rome Jesse Benedict Carter 1894

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  • "The sextant, in astronomy, is a new constellation placed across the equator, but on the south side of the ecliptic, and by Hevelius made up of some unformed stars, or such as were not included in any of the 48 old constellations. In the Britannic catalogue it contains 41 stars."

    Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 449

    October 13, 2008