a quarter of time

English translation: "an area" of time

10:29 Sep 19, 2018
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
English term or phrase: a quarter of time
Thus far, she had managed only eleven pages, handwritten in pencil, each page marked by the brown ring of her coffee mug. She had a title, though, which she regarded as a notable achievement, as titles were always so difficult. The scant eleven pages, the sum total of her labors, she regarded less charitably, for her days were nothing if not a vast empty quarter of time.

Not a quarter of any specified period, just "a vast, empty quarter of time". Is it some idiom that I am unfamiliar with?
allp
Poland
Local time: 20:33
Selected answer:"an area" of time
Explanation:
Difficult to be sure about this as it isn't an idiomatic expression, AFAIK. Maybe it's non-native English, although it doesn't read that way. Maybe an English native speaker who (has) lived abroad for a long while and gained some interference from another language.

But we do sometimes use "quarter" to mean an area, a district in English. Jewish Quarter, Latin Quarter... So this could mean her days were just an empty area of time.
Selected response from:

Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 19:33
Grading comment
Thank you, Sheila, for putting me on the right track.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
2 +4"an area" of time
Sheila Wilson
4 +1a desert
philgoddard
4a very long stretch of time filled with nothing // a large "block of time" of emptiness // ....
Daryo
4a duration of time
Shekhar Banerjee


Discussion entries: 11





  

Answers


1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +4
"an area" of time


Explanation:
Difficult to be sure about this as it isn't an idiomatic expression, AFAIK. Maybe it's non-native English, although it doesn't read that way. Maybe an English native speaker who (has) lived abroad for a long while and gained some interference from another language.

But we do sometimes use "quarter" to mean an area, a district in English. Jewish Quarter, Latin Quarter... So this could mean her days were just an empty area of time.

Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 19:33
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 20
Grading comment
Thank you, Sheila, for putting me on the right track.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Daryo: time being linear (dimension 1) it would take a lot of imagination to think of time in terms of a "surface/area" (dimension 2)// the key/relevant element is the "distinctiveness" of that fragment of time.
25 mins
  -> That's why "area" is in quotes, Daryo. And yet we do talk of a "space of time"

agree  Jack Doughty
2 hrs
  -> Thanks, Jack

agree  B D Finch: If time is considered a space, then this is vast empty space within it.
5 hrs
  -> Thanks, B.D., that's a far better explanation

agree  Yvonne Gallagher: Just an empty space/stretch of time imo probably with interference from travel or another language
12 hrs
  -> Thanks, Yvonne. It does look like interference.

agree  katsy
1 day 7 mins
  -> Thanks
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
a vast empty quarter of time
a very long stretch of time filled with nothing // a large "block of time" of emptiness // ....


Explanation:
the initial meaning of "un quartier" was literally "one quarter" of a typical roman castrum / city divided in four by Via Cardo and Via decumana

La city of Valencia was founded in 138 BC. by the roman consul Decimus Junius Brutus and settled by Italian citizens. The name Valencia is derived from the “valentia” meaning “strength and good courage”.
It was initially built upon a small island in the middle of the river Turia and followed the models of most other roman cities of the time, the two main streets ran perpendicular to each other - the via Cardo running from north to south, and the via Decumana that crossed the city from east to west with the main forum resting on the crossroads of the two.
https://everything2.com/title/Valencia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castra

so "un quartier" is a distinct fraction / part of a town - but the connection to "one quarter" was lost with the passing of time -no one expects nowadays that a town must have 4 "quartiers", but "un quartier" is still seen as a distinct subdivision of the whole town.

By analogy, what is meant in this text by "a quarter of time" is a distinct time interval [certainly NOT 6 hours per day], one "block of time" - like "leisure time" or "time at work" or "travelling time" - a stretch of time that is in some way homogeneous, only in this ST this "stretch of time" is characterised by the fact that "nothing was happening".

It's a rather unusual use of "quarter", but the intended meaning is still easy to decipher.

Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:33
Native speaker of: Native in SerbianSerbian, Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Sheila Wilson: Can you back up that hypothesis with any references to the word ever being used in that context? // The Asker's context. That's what KudoZ is about after all; not some academic exercise.,
18 mins
  -> which one is "that context"? The Roman city divided in 4 or some of the later shifts in meanings?

neutral  B D Finch: Your header terms are OK, but your explanation is over-pedantic. All that's meant is a vast, empty space in time. The use of the term "quarter" is just a rather poor choice of vocabulary.
4 hrs
  -> unusual choice, but the intended meaning is easy to guess.
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
an empty quarter of time
a desert


Explanation:
I think it would have been clearer if the author had used capitals, Empty Quarter.

"The Rub' al Khali desert [note 1] (Arabic: الربع الخالي‎, i.e., **"the Empty Quarter")** is the largest contiguous sand desert (erg) in the world,[1] encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula."



    Reference: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%27_al_Khali
philgoddard
United States
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 12
Notes to answerer
Asker: Yes, this has already been suggested by Amel Abdullah in the Discussion and I think that's the intended meaning. It also explains the lack of comma between 'vast' and 'empty' in the text. Still, the author probably didn't want to make it too obvious - hence no capitals - rather a hint, leaving room for understanding it simply as a 'stretch of time'.


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Björn Vrooman: I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you didn't see Amel's d-box post before posting. I'm a sci-fi guy and I think allp could google for "vast expanse of time" to get an idea of how to translate it.
54 mins
  -> Thanks! I posted this long before it was mentioned in the discussion box.

neutral  Daryo: it's a possibility, but that would be used only by someone familiar with this desert. Not so well known as say the Sahara.
6 hrs

neutral  Yvonne Gallagher: Perhaps, but rather obscure in an English text. You seem to have been 20 mins ahead of Amel...Basically a desert in the sense of an empty space/stretch of time.
10 hrs
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4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
a duration of time


Explanation:
Though the use here makes one inclined to feel 'a quarter' as a part of time, but as per my knowledge and understanding the writer has only meant to imply 'a duration of time' by it. Thanks!

Shekhar Banerjee
India
Local time: 01:03
Native speaker of: Native in HindiHindi, Native in EnglishEnglish
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