Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SEX-A-GES-IM-AL, a.

Sixtieth; pertaining to the number sixty. Sexagenary or sexagesimal arithmetic, is a method of computation by sixties as that which is used in dividing minutes into seconds. Sexagesimals, or sexagesimal fractions, are those whose denominators proceed in the ratio of sixty; as, 1/60, 1/3600, 1/21600. The denominator is sixty, or its multiple. These fractions are called also astronomical fractions, because formerly there were no others used in astronomical calculations. Encyc.