a. and sb. Forms: 1 twentiʓoþa (-teoʓoþa, -tuʓoþa), twentiʓþa (-teʓþa), 3 tuentiþe, twentide, 3–4 twentiþe, 4 tuuentiþe, 5 twentythe, (-tyd, 6 tuentieth), 6–7 twentith, -teth, 6– twentieth; β. 4 tuentende, tuentiand(e; γ. 4– twentiest, 5 twentyest. [OE. twentiʓoða, etc. (see above), f. twentiʓ TWENTY + -oða (see -TH2); becoming in ME. twentiþe, -ythe, from 16th c. twentieth. Northern ME. had also twentende, twentiand(e, with the Norse ordinal suffix -andi, -ende; cf. ON. tuttugandi, Norw. tjugande, Sw. tjugonde, MDa. tjugende, Da. tyvende. The other WGer. langs. have forms with the superlative suffix -ōst-, as OFris. twinti-, twintegosta (WFris. tweintichste), MDu. twintechste, Du., MLG., LG. twintigste, OHG. zweinzugôsto, (MHG. zweinzigeste, Ger. zwanzigste), also mod.Icel. tuttugasti; a similar form twentiest appears in 14–15th c. southern Eng.: cf. Caxton’s thirtiest for THIRTIETH.]
A. adj.
1. The ordinal numeral corresponding to the cardinal TWENTY; last of twenty; next after the nineteenth. a. in concord with a sb. expressed.
† Twentieth penny, one penny in every twenty: cf. THIRD B. I. 4, and sense 2 below.
a. 900. O. E. Martyrol., 20 March. On þone twenteʓðan dæʓ þæs mondes bið se þridda worolde dæʓ.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 194. Mona se twentiʓoþa.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3641. On ðat oðer twentide dai, of ðe oðer moned taȝte he wei.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 9036. In þe tuentiþe ȝer of is kinedom.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VIII. 255. Kyng Henry hadde þe twentiþe peny of lewed men[’s] catel.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, XI. 376. Xix thai war, and Craufurd,… The twentyd man, the nowmer to fullfill.
1530. Palsgr., 372/2. Vingtiesme, twenteth.
1564. Harding, Answ. Jewell’s Chalenge (1565), 96 b. [This] Origen sheweth … in the twentith homilie vpon Josue.
1643. Baker, Chron. (1653), 395. In this twentieth yeer … Sir Piers Butler … was created Earle of Osory.
1779. Mirror, No. 57, ¶ 6. Soon after my twentieth year my father died.
1818. Frere, Monks & Giants, III. xi. The festivals … That every twentieth century come in season.
1894. S. Weyman, Under Red Robe, vii. I was pondering for the twentieth time what step I should take next.
β. c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 309. Whan it wer … stabled & sette, To gyue þe penie tuentende þe Kyng.
13[?]. Cursor M., 10999 (Cott.). Þe four and tuentiand night.
γ. 1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxxi. (1495), nn iij/2. Siliqua is the twentiest parte of Solidus.
1480. Caxton, Contn. Higden (Rolls), VIII. 523. The two and twentyest day. Ibid. (1483), Gold. Leg., 334 b/1. The one and twentyest Chapytre.
b. with ellipsis of sb., usually to be supplied from context; also spec. of day (of the month), occas. of year.
1643. Baker, Chron. (1653), 533. The twentieth of September, seven of the … Conspirators … were condemned.
a. 1700. in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., IX. 337. In the 20th of her age.
1704. N. N., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., III. 157. Yesterday … being the Twentieth of this Instant.
1749. F. Smith, Voy. Disc., II. 31. The Interim, between the twentieth and twenty-eighth was filled.
1782. in J. H. Harting, Hist. Sardin. Chapel (1905), 25. On the 20th of April, 1782, on Easter Eve, this year.
1902. H. K. Mann, Lives Popes, I. I. 244. In the sixth century, as in the twentieth.
c. with numerals below ten, forming ordinals of those between twenty and thirty: one-and-twentieth, two-and-twentieth, etc. (also † twentieth (and) one, etc., obs. rare); now mostly superseded by twenty-first, twenty-second, etc.
a. 900. O. E. Martyrol., 22 Jan. On þone twa & twentiʓ. ðan dæʓ þæs monðes.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 194. Mona se an & twentiʓoða.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 53/221. In þe on an twentiþe ȝere.
a. 1325. MS. Rawl. B. 520, lf. 50 b. Þe ȝere of his regne þe ȝette ant tuuentiþe.
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 3086. In Septembre þe won & twentythe day.
1536. Wriothesley, Chron. (Camden), I. 53. The twentith tow daie of Julie.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. xviii. (S.T.S.), I. 157. The tuentieth and ane ȝeir eftir the deith of his vnkle.
1631. Milton, Sonn., On having arrived at Age of 23, 2. How soon hath Time … Stoln on his wing my three and twentith yeer!
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. 231. The four and twentieth Year.
d. Comb.
1898. (title) The Twentieth Century New Testament. Part I.
1903. G. Matheson, Repr. Men Bible, 201. Our interest in the narrative is a twentieth-century interest.
2. Twentieth part: any one of twenty equal parts into which a whole may be divided.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 5354. No tong miȝt telle þe twentiþe parte.
1611. Cotgr., Vintain, a twentieth; or a twentieth part of.
1710. Swift, Mem. to Mr. Harley, ¶ 7. The twentieth parts are 12d. in 1 l. paid annually out of all ecclesiastical benefices.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxxvii. Not a twentieth part of the affection that you have for Florence.
1911. Act 1 of 2 Geo. V., c. 16 § 2 (1) (a). The yearly value … being taken to be one-twentieth part of the capital value.
B. sb.
1. A twentieth part: see A. 2.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 145. Þe tende suld be nouht, no þe tuen[ten]de non make.
1611. [see A. 2].
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 345. Crown Pieces … one Twentieth lighter. Ibid. Nineteen twentieths of a Crown.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 537. No such thing was known in any part of France … as a tenth: it was always a twelfth, or a thirteenth, or even a twentieth of the produce.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 218. The balls should not be more than one-twentieth of an inch in diameter.
2. Mus. A note twenty diatonic degrees above or below a given note (both notes being reckoned), or the interval between two such notes (equal to two octaves and a sixth). So two and twentieth: see TWO.
1609. Douland, Ornith. Microl., 79. Others are tripled, to wit,… a twentieth, which is equall to a sixt, and a thirteenth, and so forth.
