"Sesquicentennial"

       Connie and I were driving to temple yesterday when Connie noticed the word "sesquicentennial" on a license plate ahead of us and asked me what it meant.  I phumphered around a bit and said, "I think it means 150, but I'm not sure, and I don't know what "sesqui" means or comes from; why don't you try my iPhone (she'd left hers at home)."

       Working slowly but methodically, my nondriving navigator wife got me through--not the drive, but the search. 

       Centennial means 100 years, of course, but sesqui comes from Latin semi ("half") + que ("and"); "half and one hundred years," (or 100 years and half a hundred years), which equals...150!

       By the time we pulled up at temple, Connie had it, thanks to...my idea, iPhone's admirable help, and my wife's plucky insistence.