quorum
Pronunciation: /ˈkwɔː.ɹəm/
The English word “quorum” has 4 meanings listed here.
noun
- A select body of (usually eminent) justices of the peace, every member of which had to be present to constitute a deciding body; a member of this body. Later more generally: all justices collectively.
- The minimum number of members required for a group to officially conduct business and to cast votes, often but not necessarily a majority or supermajority.
- Distinguished or essential members of any body; a select company.
- The minimum number of votes that a distributed transaction has to obtain in order to be allowed to perform an operation in a distributed system.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English quorum (c. 1426), from Anglo-Norman quorum, clipped from the Anglo-Latin wording of commissions in which certain persons were specially designated as members of a body by the words quorum vos unum esse volumus ad etc. (“of whom we want you to be one assigned to etc.”). Latin quōrum is the masculine genitive plural of the relative pronoun quī (“who”).
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.