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quote: quote: [14] Latin quot meant ‘how many’. From it was derived the adjective quotus ‘of what number’, whose feminine form quota was used in post-classical times as a noun, denoting literally ‘how great a part’ – whence English quota [17]. Quotus also formed the basis of the medieval Latin verb quotāre ‘number’, which was used specifically for the practice of marking sections of text in manuscripts with numbers, as reference points.

English took the verb over as quote, and by the 16th century was using it for ‘cite’ or ‘refer to’. The derived unquote is first recorded in a letter by e e cummings, dated 1935. Also based on quot was Latin quotiēns ‘how many times’, which has given English quotient [15]; and quotidian ‘daily’ [14] goes back ultimately to a Latin compound formed from quotus and diēs ‘day’.

But the archaic quoth [OE], despite a certain similarity in form and sense, is not related; it comes from cwæth, the past tense of Old English cwethan ‘say’.
=> quota, quotient
bean (n.): Old English bean "bean, pea, legume," from Proto-Germanic *bauno (cognates: Old Norse baun, Middle Dutch bone, Dutch boon, Old High German bona, German Bohne), and related to Latin faba "bean;" Greek phakos "lentil;" Albanian bathë "horse-bean;" Old Prussian babo, Russian bob "bean," but the original form is obscure; perhaps from a PIE reduplicated base *bha-bha-

As a metaphor for "something of small value" it is attested from c. 1300. Meaning "head" is U.S. baseball slang c. 1905 (in bean-ball "a pitch thrown at the head"); thus slang verb bean meaning "to hit on the head," attested from 1910.

The notion of lucky or magic beans in English folklore is from the exotic beans or large seeds that wash up occasionally in Cornwall and western Scotland, carried from the Caribbean or South America by the Gulf Stream. They were cherished, believed to ward off the evil eye and aid in childbirth.

Slang bean-counter "accountant" recorded by 1971. To not know beans (American English, 1933) is perhaps from the "of little worth" sense, but may have a connection to colloquial expression recorded around Somerset, to know how many beans make five "be a clever fellow."
Doomsday (n.): Old English domes dæg, from domes, genitive of dom (see doom (n.)) + dæg "day" (see day (n.)).

In medieval England it was expected when the world's age reached 6,000 years from creation, which was thought to have been in 5200 B.C. Bede, c.720, complained of being pestered by rustici asking him how many years till the sixth millennium ended. There is no evidence for a general panic in the year 1000 C.E. Doomsday machine "bomb powerful enough to wipe out human life on earth" is from 1960.
quote (v.): late 14c., coten, "to mark (a book) with chapter numbers or marginal references," from Old French coter, from Medieval Latin quotare "distinguish by numbers, number chapters," from Latin quotus "which in order? what number (in sequence)?," from quot "how many," from PIE *kwo-ti-, from pronominal root *kwo- (see who).

The sense development is via "to give as a reference, to cite as an authority" (1570s) to "to copy out or repeat exact words" (1670s). Modern spelling with qu- is from early 15c. The business sense of "to state the price of a commodity" (1866) revives the etymological meaning. Related: Quoted; quoting.
quotidian (adj.): mid-14c., "everyday, daily," from Old French cotidian (Modern French quotidien), from Latin quotidianus "daily," from Latin quotus "how many? which in order or number?" (see quote (v.)) + dies "day" (see diurnal). Meaning "ordinary, commonplace, trivial" is from mid-15c.
quotient (n.): "number of times one quantity is contained in another," mid-15c., from Latin quotiens "how often? how many times?; as often as," pronominal adverb of time, from quot "how many?" (see quote (v.)). The Latin adverb quotiens was mistaken in Middle English for a present participle in -ens.
aliquot: "A portion of a larger whole, especially a sample taken for chemical analysis or other treatment", Late 16th century: from French aliquote, from Latin aliquot 'some, so many', from alius 'one of two' + quot 'how many'.
posologic: "Of or relating to dosages; = posological", Mid 18th cent.; earliest use found in Richard Brookes (fl. 1721–1763), physician and author. From post-classical Latin posologicus from ancient Greek πόσος how much (from the Indo-European base of classical Latin quot how many + the Indo-European base of ancient Greek -ιος, suffix forming adjectives) + classical Latin -logicus.
quot homines tot sententiae: "‘There are as many opinions as there are men’: expressing the fact that there is considerable diversity of opinion, and the difficulty of bringing about agreement", Mid 16th cent.; earliest use found in Richard Taverner (?1505–1575), translator and evangelical reformer. From classical Latin quot hominēs tot sententiae there are as many opinions as there are men from quot how many + hominēs, plural of homō man + tot so many + sententiae, plural of sententia.