Quinquagesima

Quinquagesima (Lat., 'fiftieth'), the Sunday immediately preceding Ash-Wednesday. The common explanation of the name Quinquagesima, and of Sexagesima and Septuagesima, the two preceding Sundays, is that the Sundays are, roughly speaking, about fifty, sixty, and seventy days respectively before Easter. Quinquagesima, indeed, is exactly fifty days before the Octave of Easter—i.e. Low Sunday (q.v.). But probably the terms were adopted without any intention of expressing definite numbers, and simply on a false analogy with Quadragesima, the Latin name of Lent.