Thirty

a. and sb. Forms: α. 1 ð-, þrítiʓ, þrittiʓ, ðrít(e)ih, ðrittih, (2 þrinti), 2–3 þrittiȝ, þritti, 3 þrittie, þrytti, þriȝti, 3–4 þritty, 3–5 þrytty, 4 þritte, þrutty, thriti, 4–5 thritte, thritti, 4–6 thritty; also 4 þretti, þretty, threti, threiti, 4–5 thretti, 5 threty, 6–7 threttie, 4–6 (–9 dial.) thratty. β. 5 thirtti (derty), 5–6 thyrty, 6 thurty, thyrtye, 6–7 thirtie, 6– thirty. [OE. þrítiʓ, f. þrí, THREE + -tiʓ (= Goth. *tigus decade: see -TY); = OFris. thritich; OS. thrītig (LG. dörtig, Du. dertig); OHG. drîzzug (MHG. drîzec, G. dreissig); ON. þrírteger (-tigir), later þrjátigi, þrjátíu (Sw. trettio, Da. tredive); Goth. þreis tigjus ‘three tens.’ The metathetic form thirty appears in literature in 15th c. and has prevailed since 16th c.

  In the oldest Eng., ðrítiʓ was a neuter sb. sing. construed with a genitive pl., e.g., he ʓenam þritiʓ þeʓna he took (a) thirty (of) thanes (Beowulf 123), he wæs ðritiʓes ʓeara eald he was of (a) thirty (of) years old (Past. C. xlix). Later it was construed as an adj. pl., with dat. þrittiʓum, gen. þrittiʓ(r)a, e.g., þara þrittiʓra manna of those thirty men. Few traces of these inflexional forms remained in early ME.]

  A.  adj. 1. The cardinal number equal to three tens, represented by the symbols 30, or XXX, xxx. In concord with a sb. expressed or implied.

  α.  Beowulf, 123. [He] ʓenam þritiʓ þeʓna.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Luke iii. 23. Hælend wæs onginnende suelce wintra ðrittih [Rushw. ðritiʓ, Ags. G. þrit[t]iʓ, Hatt. þrittiʓ(e.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. vi. 15. Þreohund fæðma … on lenge and þrittiʓ on heahnisse. Ibid., xviii. 30. Hwæt, ʓif þær beoð þritiʓ?

a. 1175.  Cott. Hom., 225. Þritti fedme [OE. þrittiʓ fæðma] heah.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 3207. Neh Off þrittiȝ winnterr elde.

c. 1205.  Lay., 26631. After þan þreom cnihten þritti þer comen; after þan þrittie heo iseȝen þreo þusende.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 7055. He was fleme & frendles mo þan þritty [MS. B. þrutty, C. þretty] ȝer.

13[?].  Cursor M., 1216 (Fairf.). Vs telles of adam þis story Of sones he had ful þretty [Cott. thirtti, G. thritti, Tr. þritty].

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, IX. 640. Quhar ay for ane thai var thretty.

c. 1400.  Apol. Loll., 53. Judas sold Him onis … for þritty penies.

a. 1450.  Myrc, Festial, 22. And duret soo þrytty wyntyr.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Blanchardyn, xxi. 71. Hath he not taken this daye … threty coursers?

1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Feb., 17. Selfe haue I worne out thrise threttie yeares.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xii. ‘Ye may ca’ the twenty punds thretty,’ said Dumbiedikes.

  β.  1413.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), V. v. (1859), 76. The sterres … were sette by thyrty and by thyrty, in suche a maner wyse, that in euery thyrty was sette a grete sonne.

1526.  Tindale, Luke iii. 23. And Iesus … was about thirty yere of age when he began.

1530.  Palsgr., 367/2. Trente, thurty, xxx.

1552.  Huloet, Thyrtye tymes, tricies.

1671.  Milton, Samson, 1197. Your ill-meaning Politician Lords … Appointed to await me thirty spies.

1837.  Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., II. 33. Lenders of money into Vermont received thirty per cent. interest from farmers.

  b.  In comb. with the numerals one to nine, to express numbers between thirty and forty, as thirty-one, thirty-six, also (now less commonly) one-and-thirty, six-and-thirty, etc., and the ordinals thirty-first, thirty-second, thirty-ninth, etc., now less usually one-and-thirtieth, five-and-thirtieth, etc. Also as a multiple of higher numbers, as thirty thousand, thirty-six millions.

971.  Blickl. Hom., 35. Ne bið þara fæstendaʓa na ma þonne syx & þritiʓ.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., John v. 5. Ðær wæs sum man eahta and þrittiʓ [c. 950 Lind. ðrittih, c. 975 Rushw. ðritiʓ] wintra on his untrumnysse.

c. 1200.  Vices & Virt., 51. Þrie and þrihti wintre and an half.

13[?].  Sir Beues (A.), 4532. Þe nombre was, veraiment, To and þretti þosent.

13[?].  Cursor M., 2158 (Gött.). Thre hundrid and eyt and thriti ȝere.

c. 1425.  Craft of Nombrynge (E.E.T.S.), 5. Rede forth þus, 9 thousand sex hundryth thritty & foure.

1536.  Cromwell, in Merriman, Life & Lett. (1902), II. 26. In the yere of our Lorde god a thousande five hundreth syxt and thritty.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 696. Thirty thousand Englishmen were that day left dead in the field.

1711.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4903/2. On the Thirty-first of the last Month.

1731.  Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Aloe, The fifth,… thirty-fourth, and thirty-fifth Sorts require a greater Share of Heat.

1797.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 659/1. In the 39th degree of latitude.

1837.  Southey, Lett., 24 Nov. The difference of five and thirty years between me and Bertha.

1884.  Harper’s Mag., Feb., 471/2. One-thirty-sixth of their … area.

  c.  Phrases. The Thirty (Tyrants): the thirty magistrates imposed by Sparta upon the Athenians at the end of the Peloponnesian war (403 B.C.). The Thirty Years’ War: the religious wars of 1618–48 fought chiefly on German soil.

1842.  Penny Cycl., XXIV. 382/1. This conquest was the last important event of the Thirty Years’ War, which began and ended at Prague.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 266. Anytus … had joined Thrasybulus in the conflict with the Thirty.

  2.  spec. (ellipt.) a. The age of thirty; thirty years (of age, old, etc.). So thirty-one, etc.

c. 1000.  in Anglia, XI. 3/77. Se hælend wæs þrittiʓ þa hine mann fullude.

1618.  Chapman, Hesiod’s Georg., II. 486. Thy selfe, if well in yeares; thy wife take home, Not much past thirtie; nor haue much to come.

a. 1715.  Burnet, Own Time, III. (1724), I. 373. A cooler and elder man than I was, being then but thirty.

1780.  Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 7 April. Conversable as he could have been at thirty-two.

1859.  Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, xxxi. She might well die o’ th’ inflammation afore she war thirty.

  b.  In stating the time of day, thirty minutes; as in six-thirty = 6.30 o’clock, half-past six; also attrib. as the 6:30 train.

1870.  Miss Bridgman, Rob. Lynne, xvi. Mr. Lynne had come down … by the 7.30, and departed by the 9.45.

1899.  Westm. Gaz., 23 Dec., 6/3. He who came a moment after eleven-thirty stood very small chance of getting anywhere near the carriage door.

  † 3.  As ordinal: = THIRTIETH. So thirty-two for thirty-second, etc. Obs.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Last Age of Chirche, p. xxiv. Þe þre and þritty sermon.

1540.  Hyrde, trans. Vives’ Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592), Cc vij. In the hundred and thirtie Psalme.

1594.  Contention, I. i. 50. Ere the thirty day of the next month.

1606.  G. W[oodcocke], Lives Emperors, in Hist. Ivstine, Ff ij. He died the thirty two year of his age.

1609.  Skene, Reg. Maj., Stat. K. William, 3. The sextene veshell, or the tuentie or threttie.

  B.  sb.

  1.  The abstract number; also, a symbol representing this. So thirty-one, thirty-six, etc.

c. 1050.  Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia (1885), VIII. 302. Fif siðon seofon beoð fif & þrittiʓ.

c. 1425.  Craft of Nombrynge (E.E.T.S.), 4. The figure of 3. … betokens ten tymes more þen he schuld & he stode þere þat þe figure of 4.stondes, þat is thretty.

1501.  in Exch. Rolls Scotl., XII. 236, note. The nomir threttynyde.

Mod.  A Roman thirty is written thus: xxx. Twice thirty are sixty.

  2.  The thirties: the years of which the numbers begin with 30; the fourth decade of a century.

1880.  G. Meredith, Tragic Com., xvi. His forty years … matched the twenties and thirties of other men.

1883.  Seeley, Expansion Eng., 288. Dating only from about the thirties of the present century.

1892.  A. E. Lee, Hist. Columbus, Ohio, II. 73. The company … maintained its primary organization until some time in the early thirties.

  3.  (See quot.)

1895.  Funk’s Standard Dict., Thirty … among printers and telegraphers, the last sheet, word, or line of copy or of a despatch; the last; the end.

  4.  Thirty and its compounds in elliptical uses: e.g., thirty-four, port-wine of the year 1834; thirty-two, a thirty-two-pound gun; a flower-pot of which there are 32 in a ‘cast’ (see CAST sb. 15): see also THIRTYTWOMO.

1802.  W. Forsyth, Fruit-Trees, viii. 114, note. [Flower] pots are denominated by the number contained in what the Potters call a Cast…. [The] 5 [size, of] 32 [in the Cast is called] Thirty-two’s.

1860.  All Year Round, No. 66. 378. ‘Toasts are almost out of date,’ I replied; ‘but the ’thirty-four must pay for this.’

1870.  Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., Feb., 85. They … could knock the thirty-twos about in the style characteristic of British sailors.

1903.  D. McDonald, Gard. Companion, Ser. II. 70. They choose pots of various sizes—those called thirty-twos (6 in.) seem to be most liked.

  C.  Comb. a. With sbs. forming attrib. phrases, as thirty-acre, -day, -foot, -hour, -knot, -pound, -ton, -word, -year; hence thirty-footer, -miler, -tonner, etc. (a … of thirty feet, miles, tons, etc.). So with the compounds thirty-one, thirty-nine, etc., as thirty-two-horse (power), -months-old; thirty-three-year; thirty-two-celled, thirty-four-seated, thirty-eight-volumed adjs.; thirty-five-tonner, thirty-six-pounder, etc. (a … of thirty- … tons, pounds, etc.).

1666.  J. Davies, Hist. Caribby Isles, 200. These French Servants, by reason of the three years service they are engaged to, are commonly called the Thirty-six-months-men.

1733.  Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xiv. 176. Drill Double Rows with Eight-Inch Partitions, and Thirty-Inch Intervals.

1775.  Chron., in Ann. Reg., 163/2. They are about the size of a thirty-six shilling piece.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 491. The great wheel … pulley on its axis, over which the cord goes (as in a common thirty-hour clock).

1876.  Blackmore, Cripps, xxxv. A May cold is a thirty-day cold.

1890.  W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 13. Where the mighty thirty-five-tonner is shaking the earth.

1907.  Westm. Gaz., 21 March, 9/1. The working expenses of thirty-four-seated petrol motor-omnibuses. Ibid. (1909), 8 March, 12/2. A thirty-six holes match has been arranged between … one-armed golfers.

1909.  Times, Lit. Suppl., 18 March, 101/2. This thirty-eight-volumed behemoth.

  b.  Special Combs.: † thirty-cross, one of the transverse bars of a cross staff, viz., that used for about 30°; thirty-penny nail, a size of nail: see PENNY 10; † thirty-perforce, name of an old card game: see quot.; thirty-pounder, a gun throwing a shot of thirty pounds: so thirty-six-pounder, etc.; † thirty-pound knight, one alleged to have obtained his knighthood for a payment of thirty pounds; thirty-second-note (Mus.), a note of the length of ¹/₃₂ of a semibreve, a demisemiquaver.

1726.  G. Roberts, Four Yrs. Voy., 102. They left my Forestaff, with only the *Thirty-cross, having as I suppose, flung the other Crosses over-board.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 135. Nails of sorts are … 30, and 40-penny nails.

1599.  Minsheu, Sp. Dict., Dial. iii. 25. Behold here are the cards, let vs play at *thirtie perforce, or Albures [Sp. juguemos treinta por fuerça, o los albures], for these are good plaies.

1812.  R. Hall, in Examiner, 12 Oct., 648/1. Two batteries of … *thirty-six pounders commanded the beach.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), I iv. A thirty-two-pounder.

1605.  Chapman, etc., Eastward Hoe, IV. i. F j b. I ken the man weel, hees one of my *thirty pound knights.