quintain

From Anglo-Norman quintaine, quinteine, Middle French quintaine, probably from Latin quīntāna (“street separating fifth and sixth maniples in a Roman camp”), feminine form of quīntānus (“pertaining to the fifth”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkwɪntɪn/
• Hyphenation: quin‧tain

quintain (plural quintains)

1. (now historical) An object (generally a post or plank on a support) set up as a target to be tilted at in jousting, or otherwise used as target practice. [from 15th c.]
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], lines 362-64:

     My better parts
     Are all thrown down; and that which here stands up
     Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block.

   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 285:

     In the tiltyard, his companions felt the juddering impact of his sword-blows and saw the muscled precision of his archery and his tilting at the quintain.

• quintile
• quintuplicate