Quinzaine refer to a period during which parliament met according to a Writ of Summons by the King. A specific example would be 1257 parliamentum for which the Rolls were latterly destroyed, probably by fire in 19th or 20th centuries. Its significance lay in the Charters used to confirm parliament's right to sit and be summoned at a specific date. "Parliamntum" or "parliamentum generalissimum" could be called every quarter, that coincided with Hilary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas terms, which also happened to be the legal terms for the Inns of Courts in Westminster and London. The quaint term of quindene was
Academic term universities have special names for the three terms, e.g. Michaelmas, Hilary, Trinity (Oxford) or Michaelmas, Epiphany, Easter (Durham). Special term names (i.e. not first, second, third; autumn, spring, summer; or other obvious names) in use include: Exceptions to the ordinary structure of the academic year include the University of Buckingham, where undergraduate courses do not coincide with the academic year used by universities in Britain and elsewhere. Instead, they largely coincide with the calendar year—they typically start in January or February, with examinations in autumn. There are a number of different systems used in the US: The word quadmester or