arch. Forms: 1 twœʓen, tueʓen, 1–2 tweʓen, twæʓen, 2 tweiʓen, 2–3 tweien, 3 tweyen; 2–5 twein, 3–5 tweyne, tweine, twene, (4 tweiyne, tuueine), 4–5 tweyn, 5 tweyne; 4 tuayn, tuain, 4–6 twayne (5 tueyne, thwayne), 5–6 twayn, 6 Sc. twane, 6–7 twaine, (7 Sc. tuaine), 6– twain. [The modern representative of OE. twéʓen, the nom. and acc. masc. of the numeral of which the fem. and neuter twá, tú, remain as TWO (q.v.). It corresponds to OFris. twêne, twên (mod.Fris. dial. tween, twein, twain), OS. twêna, twêne, OHG. and MHG. zwêne (archaic Ger. zween). In ME. twain ceased to be confined to the masc., and became merely a secondary form of two, used esp. when the numeral followed the sb. Its use in the Bible of 1611 and in the Marriage Service, and its value as a rhyme-word, have contributed to its retention as an archaic and poetic synonym of two. See also the apocopate form TWAY; and, for the inflexions, TWO.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (O.E.T.), 1510. Passus, faeðm vel tueʓen stridi.
a. 800. Casket, 1, in O. E. Texts, 127. Twœʓen ʓibroþæra, fœddæ hiæ uylif in Romæcæstri.
a. 900. O. E. Chron., an. 822. Her tueʓen [Laud MS. twæʓen] aldormen wurdon ofslæʓene.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. xlii. 37. Ic hæbbe tweʓen suna.
c. 1160. Hatton Gosp., Matt. xviii. 20. Ðær tweiʓen [Ags. G. tweʓen] oððe þreo synden on minen namen ʓegadered.
c. 1175. 12th c. Hom. (Bodley), 86. Tweȝen þisseræ dæle habbæð deor & nyten.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 41. Heo tweien eoden et sume time in to helle. Ibid., 85. He haueð … þa twein peneȝes.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 5. Tweien oðer tocumes of ure helende.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 276/168. Tweyen faire wommen.
a. 1325. MS. Rawl. B. 520, lf. 81. Noȝt … bi tuueine assoines a sullen sollemnen suuche ane assoine.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 194. And þei schullen be tweiyne in o flesch.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1963 (Ariadne). It was longynge to the doughteren tweyne.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VIII. 151. By twene [v.r. tweye] burgeys of Londoun.
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 734 (Harl. MS.). To his tweyne bretheren anon-right he cam.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., xlii. With … wommen tueyne.
c. 1425. Cursor M., 523 (Trin.). [Þe] heed wiþynne haþ eȝen tweyn [Cott., Gott. tuin; F. twyn; rhyme certeyn].
c. 1440. Generydes, 155. It was be twix them thwayne.
c. 1450. Godstow Reg., 193. Rent, to be paid … at twayne termes in the yere.
1503. Dunbar, Thistle & Rose, 172. Haill, Roiss, both reid and quhyt,… of michty cullouris twane.
1511–2. Act 3 Hen. VIII., c. 23 § 5. Lettres … to twayn of his honourable Counseillours.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 165. The vertues … of bothe twain.
1548. Forrest, Pleas. Poesye, 61 b. Wee shall deuyde it into lessons twayne.
1675. Hobbes, Odyssey, IV. 470. But of the Princes lost are only twain.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 77. The soft settee … received, United yet divided, twain at once.
1897. May Kendall, in Longm. Mag., Aug., 340. Forth went … Soldiers twain.
β. Abnormal genitive pl.: her tweyners = of them two. (After alleris, altheris, botheris: see ALL D. 4, BOTH A. 4 b.)
c. 1450. Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 125. And of her tweyners metyng Here gynnyth the proces.
B. Signification. = TWO. I. adj.
1. In concord with a sb., etc. a. Preceding the sb. Now rare.
c. 1725–. [see A.].
c. 1205. Lay., 8144. Þeos tweien cnihtes. Ibid., 12255. Twene ibroðeren.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 310. Whanne tweyne horis stryvede whos was þe child. Ibid. (1382), 512. A þousand and tweyn hundrid ȝeer.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 167. There be tweyne Mauritanyes, that firste is Mauritany Cesariense, whiche hathe at the este of hit Numidia.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1906), 162. It might be proued … by tweyn witnessis.
c. 1460. Wisdom, 1077, in Macro Plays, 71. In twayn myghtys of my soule I the offendyde.
1554. Cdl. Pole, in Eng. Hist. Rev., July (1913), 528. I have recevyd twayne yowr lettres.
1870. R. Buchanan, Bk. Orm, IV. 89. Thy blue eyes twain stars.
1871. F. W. Newman, Iliad, XIII. 201. The twain full arm’d Aiantes.
b. poet. Following the sb.
Chiefly for the sake of a rhyme.
13[?]. Cursor M., 4032. Þir breþer tuain þam tok to red.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 106. Godefrey of Louayn,… Bi messengers tuayn sent to kyng Henry, For his douhter Adelayn.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 334. Let this flod enduren yeres twaine.
c. 1440. R. Gloucester’s Chron., 1099. Þo adde king lud … ȝonge sones tueie [MS. δ tweyne].
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 671. On cok for hennys tweyne.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 174. Whylom dyuyded in sondry kyngdomes twayne.
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), xxiii. 26. Hir bricht fair ene twane.
1700. Dryden, Cock & Fox, 717. The trembling widow, and her daughters twain.
1724. Swift, To Delany, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 46. Where we find the members twain.
1782. Cowper, Gilpin, 123. The bottles twain … Were shatter’d at a blow.
1843. Neale, Hymns for Sick (1863), 42. He loved the sisters twain.
1846. Keble, Lyra Innoc. (1873), 147. Five loaves hath he, And fishes twain.
1860. Longf., Wayside Inn, Saga K. Olaf, IV. 23. She had given the ring to her goldsmiths twain, Who smiled, as they handed it back again.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxxviii. 1. Brothers twain has Gallus.
2. Absolutely with ellipsis of sb., or following a pronoun or pronominal adjective.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xviii. 20. ʓyf tweʓen of eow ʓeþwæriað … be ælcum þinge.
c. 1160, c. 1175. [see A.].
c. 1275. Passion of our Lord, 243, in O. E. Misc., 44. Þer arysen tweyne and bigunne to speke.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 2507. So what sorwe he suffres to saue vs tweine!
1401. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 27. What betokeneth that ye goe tweine and tweine togither?
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, II. x. 87. Of the tweyne he had leuer kyng Lotte had be slayne than kynge Arthur.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 143. I shall wryte a worde or twayne.
1596. Edward III., IV. v. 82. Which of these twaine is greater infamie?
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 438. All his Lords, the Duke of Millaine And his braue sonne, being twaine.
1657. Howell, Londinop., 322. They had six … Meeting places,… twain in Bridge Street,… twain in Old Fish Street, and twain in Stock-Fishmonger Row.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, Let. vii. We will pray him … to tarry a day or twain.
1847. Tennyson, Princ., VII. 271. These twain … Sit side by side. Ibid. (1881), Cup, II. i. 37. That the world may know You twain are reconciled.
b. In († on) twain: into two parts or pieces, in two, asunder.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., III. ix. (1495), 54. The vertue of apprehendynge … is departed in tweyne.
1415. E. E. Wills (1882), 23. Y wolle hit be parted on tweyne.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 58. Or þei be fulli partide on tweyne.
c. 1440. Generydes, 2632. With that stroke he brake his sheld on twayn.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., xxxviii. (Percy Soc.), 197. I have thought long Sithen the time that we parted in twayne.
1598. Mucedorus, II. iv. 77. To cut in twaine the twisted thread.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 202. Cold Winter split the Rocks in twain.
1798. Soph. Lee, Canterb. T., Yng. Lady’s T., II. 145. The marble fountain … was cloven in twain.
a. 1862. Buckle, Misc. Wks. (1872), I. 84. The nation was … severed in twain by … religious faction.
3. With special connotations. (Cf. ONE III.) a. Separate, parted asunder; disunited, estranged, at variance. (Only in predicate.)
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., xxxvi. We two must be twaine, Although our vndeuided loues are one.
1612. Sir W. Mure, Misc. Poems, iv. 28. Ȝit in a breist sall both our herts no more at all be tuaine.
1619. Drayton, Idea, ix. Reason and I (you must conceive) are twaine.
1671. Milton, Samson, 929. Thou and I long since are twain.
1844. Talfourd, Athenian Capt., IV. i. Henceforth we are twain.
b. Consisting of two parts or elements; double, twofold. rare.
1398. Trevisa, Earth. De P. R., V. i. (1495), f viij/2. A chylde borne, yt was tweyne in ye ouer partye & one in the nether partye.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 132. Hope and shame, Twain help,… unto her spirit came.
II. sb.
† 1. The abstract number two. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxiii. (1495), mm iij b/1. Superfluus is the nombre yt hath partyes that maketh a greter nombre than itself:… one, tweyne, thre [etc.].
c. 1425. Craft of Nombrynge (E.E.T.S.), 9. Þou mayst not draw sex out of 2. But þou mayst draw 2 out of sex. And þou maiste draw twene out of twene.
c. 1483. Caxton, Dialogues, x. 51/6. Ung, deux, trois, one, tweyne, thre.
2. A group of two; a pair, couple.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 555. Horns which some men guess to be of the Unicorns … because they are found several, never by twains.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 104. To blesse this twaine, that they may prosperous be.
1816. Byron, Lett. to Moore, 24 Dec. You received my other twain of letters.
1843. S. Bamford, Homely Rhymes, etc. (1864), 71. The twain of young lovers have tarried behind.
3. pl. Twins. dial.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Besson, twaines.
1897. J. Hammond, Cornish Parish, ix. 199. I remark in 1699 three entries of ‘twains’ out of 76 births. Ibid., xix. 344. Instead of ‘twins,’ [we say] ‘two twains.’
III. Comb.: twain-cloud, a name for the cumulostratus; † twain-edged a. = TWO-EDGED.
1382. Wyclif, Heb. iv. 12. The word of God is … more able for to perse than al tweyne eggid swerd.
1823. T. Forster, Res. Atmospheric Phenomena, i. § 7 (ed. 3), 20. Of the Cumulostratus or Twaincloud.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 246. Why … the heaped stratus [should be called] the twain-cloud is by no means obvious, unless … [as] being composed of two clouds,… but, on the same principle, the cirro-cumulus, and the cirro-stratus and the cumulo-stratus may be termed twain-clouds.
