combining element. [OE. *-tíene, -týne, -téne, ME. -tēne = OFris. -téna, -tíne, OS. -tein (-tian), LG. -tein, Du. -tien, OHG. -zehan (-zeheni), Ger. -zehn.] An inflected form of TEN, added to the simple numerals from three to nine, to form the names of those from thirteen to nineteen.
Hence -teenth, forming ordinal numerals from the cardinals in -teen, from thirteenth to nineteenth. In ME. this took the place of earlier -teþe, OE. téoþe: cf. TENTH and -TH.
In early OE., as in the cognate langs., the simple numerals, from four upwards, had an inflected and an uninflected form, the latter commonly used before a sb., seofon daʓas, the former in other positions, e.g., swa ealle scofone. The inflected forms were sbs. of the -i declension, with nominative pl. in -e (neut. -u, -o). Subsequently these forms were leveled, the numerals up to twelve retaining the uninflected form, those from thirteen to nineteen the inflected, as teon, ten, fiftēne, fifteen. In ME. the final -e of -tēne, -teene became mute; in mod. Eng. -teen it is no longer written, but the stem vowel remains long.
These compounds had originally the stress on the first element, as in drei·zehn, tre·decim, tre·dici, δώδεκα, etc. In modern Eng. this is retained in counting: ‘twelve, thi·rteen, fou·rteen, fi·fteen,’ etc., also before hundred, as ‘ei·ghteen hu·ndred and ni·nety’; but before a sb. there is a secondary stress on -teen, as ‘ei·ghtee·n me·n.’ Otherwise the two elements have usually equal stress, thi·rtee·n, se·ventee·n, ei·ghtee·n, which in the pause may become: —· (not —·), as ‘at the age of thi·rtee·n,’ ‘sweet se·ventee·n.’ This stressing may have arisen to distinguish them clearly from the numerals in -ty: ‘not se·ventee·n but se·venty’; ‘the fo·rty days have been reduced to fou·rtee·n.’ The stressing of the ordinals in -teenth follows the same lines.
