Meaning

noun a quarter of the circumference of a circle

noun any of the four areas into which a plane is divided by two orthogonal coordinate axes

noun the area enclosed by two perpendicular radii of a circle

originFrom Middle English quadrant, from Old French cadran, quadrant and its etymon Latin quadrāns, -antis (“fourth part of something, quarter”). Doublet of quadrans.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0