cinquefoil

English

Fan-leaf cinquefoil (Potentilla flabellifolia)

Alternative forms

• cinqfoil
• quinquefoil

Etymology

From Old French cinqfoil, from cinq (“five”) + foil (“leaf”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪŋk.fɔɪl/

Noun

cinquefoil (plural cinquefoils)

1. A potentilla (flower).
   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 112:

     Witches always anointed themselves with ointments before departing up the chimney to their Sabbaths. One such ointment was composed of Aconite, Belladonna, Water Parsley, Cinquefoil and Babies' Fat.

2. (heraldry) A stylized flower or leaf with five lobes.
3. (topology) A particular knot of five crossings.

Synonyms

• (flower): fiveleaf
• (knot): cinquefoil knot, $5_{1}$, $T(5,2)$

Coordinate terms

• trefoil
• quatrefoil
• sexfoil
• octofoil

Derived terms

• cinquefoiled
• creeping cinquefoil

 

Related terms

• cinque
• multifoil
• polyfoil

Translations

potentilla — see potentilla

heraldry: stylized flower or leaf with five lobes

• Catalan: quinquefoli m
• Finnish: viisilehti, viisilehtinen kukka
• French: quintefeuille (fr) f
• German: Fünfpass m
• Italian: cinquefoglie (it) m
• Swedish: femblading c

topology: knot

Further reading

• cinquefoil knot on Wikipedia.Wikipedia