terminus a quo

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Related to terminus a quo: terminus ad quem

ter·mi·nus a quo

(tĕr′mĭ-no͝os′ ä kwō′, tûr′mə-nəs ā)

1. A starting point or origin.

2. A first point in time: The terminus a quo for the Middle Ages is often considered the fall of Rome in 476.

[Latin terminus ā quō, limit from which.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

terminus a quo

(ˈtɜːmɪˌnʊs ɑː ˈkwəʊ)

(Literary & Literary Critical Terms) the starting point; beginning

[literally: the end from which]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun

terminus a quo - earliest limiting point

starting point

commencement, get-go, offset, outset, showtime, starting time, beginning, start, kickoff, first - the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the get-go that he was the man for her"

References in periodicals archive ?

Given the already established terminus a quo, this can only be referring to the declaration of war of 19 May 1635.

The date of 'Byrsa Basilica' and 'The Swedish Intelligencer'(s) of 1635

Fundamentally, Corthell would identify Donne's work as the site of an ideological struggle to represent Renaissance literary subjectivity, and as an early stage in a "long historical process" (19) in which similar struggles in modern and postmodern representations of subjectivity may be read "in light of Donne as a terminus a quo" (16).