English

Noun

tesseradecade ‎(plural tesseradecades)

1. A group of fourteen.
   • 1752, Middleton, Conyers, “Reflections on the Variations, or Inconſiſtencies, Which are found among the Four Evangelists In their different Accounts of the ſame Facts”, in The Miscellaneous Works of the Late Reverend and Learned Conyers Middleton, volume 2, London: Richard Manby, OL 7060542M, page 24:

     For inſtance ; it is allowed by all the Commentators, both antient and modern, that in the ſecond of thoſe Teſſeradecades, or periods of fourteen generations, into which Matthew has diſtributed the whole Genealogy, he has either willfully ſuppreſſed, or negligently omitted three ſucceſſive deſcents from father to ſon, between Joram and Ozias; viz. Ochozias, Joaſh, Ahaziah; in contradiction to the truth of hiſtory, and to thoſe very books, whence he drew the Genealogy itſelf.

   • 1853, Hervey, Arthur, The Genealogies of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Cambridge: Macmillan, OL 23360273M, pages 62-63:

     He divides the whole number of generations enumerated by him into three equal portions, each containing fourteen generations, viz. from Abraham to David, from David to the captivity, and from the captivity to Christ. It is to the two former tesseradecades that we have to address ourselves at present.

   • 1884, Meyer, Heinrich August Wilhelm, Critical and Exegetical Hand-book to the New Testament, volume 1, New York; London: Funk & Wagnalls, page 43:

     We must assume that the reason for the division into three tesseradecades was not merely to aid the memory, which is not sufficient to explain the emphatic and solemn prominence given to the equal number of links in the three periods, ver. 17; […]