Twenty

numeral a. and sb. Forms: 1 twentiʓ, (tuentiʓ, tuoentiʓ, twoeʓentiʓ), 2–6 twenti, 3 (Orm.) twenntiʓ, 3–6 tuenty, 4–5 tuenti, (4 tuent), 5–7 twentie, 6 tuentie, twentye, (Sc. twantie, Sc. dial. twinti, twenti, tuonti, toontie) 4– twenty. [OE. twentiʓ, f. twen- two + -tiʓ (= Goth. tigus, ON. tigr decade: see -TY²): = OFris. twintich, -ech, tweintich, -tig (WFris. tweintich, NFris. twuntich), OS. twentig or twēntig, MDu. twintich (Du. twintig), MLG. twentig, twintig (LG. twintig); OHG. zweinzug, -uc, -och (MHG. zweinzec, -ic, zwênzic, -ig, Ger. zwanzig); the first element is variously explained as a nom. plur. (OE. twéʓen) and as a dative form. Cf. also ON. tuttugu, -ogu (Norw. tjuge, tjug, Sw. tjugo, MDa. tiuge, Da. tyve), and Goth. twai-tigjus (two decades).

  Like the other cardinals in -TY, in OE. orig. a neuter sb. followed by a genitive plural: e.g.,

c. 893.  K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. 18. Næfde he þeah ma ðonne twentiʓ hryðera, & twentiʓ sceapa, & twentiʓ swyna.

971.  Blickl. Hom., 231. Onbid her seofon & twentiʓ nihta.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. xxxi. 38. Wæs ic … mid þe nu twentiʓ wintra. Ibid., xxxii. 14. Twentiʓ buccena … and twentiʓ rammena.]

  The cardinal number equal to twice ten: represented by the symbols 20 or XX (formerly sometimes xx^ti = L. viginti).

  A.  adj. 1. In concord with a sb. expressed (or in OE. in plural form with implied sb.).

a. 900.  Elene, 830 (Gr.). On twentiʓum [MS. xx] fotmælum.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Numb. xi. 19. Næs to anum dæʓe, ne to twam,… ne to tynum, ne to twentiʓum [daʓum].

a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 2502. Twenti dahene ȝong [= journey].

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 282. Wele tuenti ȝere.

1478.  W. Paston, in P. Lett., III. 237. He seythe ye be xx^tis. in hys dette.

1583.  Stocker, Civ. Warres Lowe C., II. 48. A great multitude of people, who come twentie mile of to this goodly feast.

1637.  Decree Star Chamb., § 15, in Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 16. There shall be but Twentie Master Printers allowed to haue the vse of one Presse.

1758.  R. Brown, Compl. Farmer (1759), 71. A hen sits twenty days.

1853.  J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk. (1873), II. I. ii. 75. In the course of twenty years a new generation would arise.

  b.  Combined with the numerals below ten (one to nine) to express the numbers between twenty and thirty; formerly (and still occasionally) one and twenty, two and twenty, etc. (rarely twenty and one, etc.); now commonly twenty-one, twenty-two, etc.; similarly with the ordinals from first to ninth, forming the ordinals corresponding to the above (twenty-first, twenty-second, etc.), in modern use substituted for the earlier one-and-twentieth, two-and-twentieth, etc. (see TWENTIETH A. I c).

c. 893.  K. Ælfred, Oros., VI. ii. 256. Þara twa & twentiʓra monna þe he him to fultume hæfde acoren.

a. 1131.  O. E. Chron., an. 1124. Þes kinges cnihtes … namen … fif and twenti oðre cnihtes.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 1532. Vif & twenti ȝer.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 3930. Aȝt & tuenti men of armes.

1526.  Proclam., 5 Nov. (Pat. Roll 18 Hen. VIII., II. m. 2 d). The Soueraygne … shalbe curraunt … for twenty two shillynges and sixe pens.

1596.  Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. xvi. (S.T.S.), I. 150. Four and tuentie cubites hich.

1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, III. xviii. 177. I haue gone ouer twenty and seauen riuers vpon that coast.

1777.  Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), I. II. 163. In the parallel of twenty-two degrees of latitude.

1794.  Stedman, Surinam (1813) II. xxv. 224. What he called his Silver-feast, being the twenty-fifth anniversary of his marriage.

1820.  Southey, Wesley, I. 53. More than four-and-twenty pounds.

1857.  Miller, Elem. Chem. (1862), III. 204. Allowing the … mixture to stand for twenty-four hours.

  c.  As multiplier before a numeral, usually a higher one, as † twenty hundred obs. (= two thousand), twenty thousand, etc. (often hyperbolically: cf. d). So twenty-one thousand, etc.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xiv. 31. Mið tuoentiʓum ðusendum [Ruskhw. twoeʓentiʓum ðusenda] cymeð to him.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., ibid. Aʓen þone þe him aʓen cymð mid twentiʓum þusendum.

c. 1205.  Lay., 26824. Twenti hundred cnihten.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVI. 10. I wolde trauaille … þis tree to se twenty hundreth myle.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Manciple’s T., 65. Yet hath this brid by twenty thousand foold Leuere in a fforest … Goon ete wormes.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, l. 16. Off the Glen Quhettane twenti scoir He drawe as oxin him befoir.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 775. If loue haue lent you twentie thousand tongues.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, IV. 83. I would pipe and trill, And cheep and twitter twenty million loves.

Mod.  Twenty thousand pounds sterling. Twenty million dollars.

  d.  Used vaguely or hyperbolically for a large number.

  † A twenty devil way: see DEVIL sb. 19.

c. 1470.  Golagros & Gaw., 970. His scheild he chopit hym fra In tuenty pecis and ma.

1553.  Douglas, Æneis, I. Prol. 260. A twenty devill mot fall his werk at anis.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 575. Were beautie vnder twentie locks kept fast.

1622.  Bacon, Hen. VII., 228. Vpon Twentie respects hee could not haue beene the Man.

1748.  Richardson, Clarissa, II. xxviii. 164. I only came … to sit and talk of twenty and twenty fond things, as I used to do.

1848.  Buckley, Iliad, 412. Not even if they should place ten-fold and twenty-times such ransoms.

  2.  With ellipsis of sb. (which may usunlly be supplied from the context). So twenty-one, twenty-first, etc. † And twenty, used as an intensive.

c. 961.  Æthelwold, Rule St. Benet, xxii. 47 (Gr.). [Let them sleep] tynum and twentiʓum on anum inne ætgædere.

[c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. xviii. 31. God cwæð: Ne do ic hit, ʓif þær beoð twentiʓ.]

c. 1205.  Lay., 3387. We mine fader habbet vnderfon mid þirtti cnihten,… Do we awai þane twenti.

13[?].  Cursor M., 16906 (Cott.). A mikel stan, to turn i-nogh had tuent [rhyme monument].

1535.  Coverdale, Gen. xviii. 31. Peraduenture there might be twentie founde therin.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., II. iii. 52. In delay there lies no plentie, Then cume kisse me sweet and twentie: Youths a stuffe will not endure.

1605.  Rowley, When you see me, etc., D ij. Godyegodnight and twentie syr.

1607.  Middleton, Five Gallants, I. i. As in one pie twenty may dip their sippits.

1735.  Johnson, Lobo’s Abyssinia, Descr., xii. 115. The ordinary Dose is six of these Rinds, and I had devour’d twenty.

1897.  Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 550. The first man to reach the summit was Sir Richard Burton…. He went up, as did the succeeding twenty-five (mostly Germans) from Babundi.

1902.  O. Wister, Virginian, xxiii. His thermometer … registered twenty below zero.

  b.  spec. with ellipsis of years (of age); so twenty-one, etc.

1773.  Goldsm., Stoops to Conq., III. What will repair beauty at forty, will certainly improve it at twenty.

1836–9.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Steam Excursion. He … was smart, spoffish, and eight-and-twenty.

1849.  E. B. Eastwick, Dry Leaves, 83. A young man of twenty.

1898.  Mrs. B. M. Croker, Peggy of Bartons, xxix. I shall be twenty-one in April.

  c.  The ordinals twenty-first, twenty-second, etc., are ordinarily used with ellipsis of day (of the month), also year (of a reign).

1669.  F. Vernon, Lett., 19 June, in Lang, Valet’s Trag., etc. (1903), 51. My last of the 26^th Currt.

1711.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4902/2. The King … was to embark on the Twenty-seventh.

1777.  Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), I. II. 141. He set sail … on the twenty-fifth of September.

1879.  E. Waterton, Pietas Mariana Brit., 78. In the twenty-second of Henry the Seventh.

1886.  Stevenson, Kidnapped, xxvi. The house … where we slept the twenty-first of the month.

  d.  The twenty (at Rugby School): see quot. a. 1894. The Twenty-four, a body of 24 men having some special office (at various times and places: see quots.).

1440.  in Glew, Hist. Walsall (1856), 105. The Masters … shall not make gift or graunt of eny donacion of eny Chantrey … withoute the assent of the xxiiij.

1736.  Drake, Eboracum, I. vi. 184. These citizens are commonly called by the name of the twenty four; though they may be more or less than that number.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, II. viii. How well I remember the day we were put out of the twenty [into the sixth form].

1890.  Gross, Gild Merch., II. 347. The governing body is no longer [after 1622] called ‘the twenty-four’ … but simply the ‘probi homines.’

a. 1894.  C. H. Pearson, in Stebbing, Life (1900), 23. Scholarship at Rugby was picked up in the Twenty, a sort of lower sixth.

  e.  Phr. † Twenty in the hundred, a 20 per cent. rate of interest on loans; transf. a usurer. Twenty to one, twenty chances to one; an expression of very strong probability.

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., I. i. 72. Twenty to one then, he is ship’d already.

1602.  B. Jonson, Poetaster (Qo.), III. i. Thou art an honest twenty in the hundred.

Mod.  Ellington won the Derby in 1856 at 20 to 1.

  3.  Used for the ordinal TWENTIETH; so twenty-one (one and twenty) for twenty-first, etc. Now only after a sb. in such collocations as chapter twenty, verse twenty-one, etc.

a. 1100.  O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1086. On þam an & twentiʓan ʓeare þæs þe Willelm weolde & stihte Engle land.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 7105. In þe ȝer of is kinedom tuenty & tuo.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xviii. (Egipciane), 208. One [= on] þe twenty day At þe sexte oure.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Last Age Ch., in Todd, 3 Treat., p. xxxv. As Dauiþ seiþ, þe on and twenty Salme.

1544.  trans. Littleton’s Tenures (1574), 73. Thoughe the horse … bee not the twentye parte woorth in value of the summe of money.

1567.  Gude & Godlie B., 2. The ten commandementis … in Exodus the twentie Chapter.

  B.  sb. (with plural twenties).

  1.  The abstract number 20; a symbol representing this. So twenty-one, etc.

c. 1425.  Craft of Nombryng (E.E.T.S.), 22. Take 12 out of twenty, and þere schal leue 8.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 141/1. Country People … reckon … their numbers … by … Scores or Twenty’s.

1725.  Watts, Logic, II. v. § 5. Some Things … almost as certain … as that … five Twenties make a Hundred.

1845.  Encycl. Metrop., I. 384. The numeral language is constructed in conformity with the Phœnician numerals, proceeding by twenties as far as 100.

Mod.  Twenty is an even number. A twenty is printed thus: xx. 20.

  b.  A person or thing distinguished by this number, usually as the twentieth in a series; so twenty-one, twenty-two, etc.

1888.  H. Mortem, Sk. Hospital Life, 18. I … heard her ask … ‘Who is “Twenty-two”?’—one of the detestable habits of the place being to call you by the number of your bed.

  2.  A group or set of twenty persons or things. So (rarely) a twenty-five, etc.

1637.  Gillespie, Eng. Pop. Cerem., IV. vi. 26. Many societies conveened to the eating of the Paschall Supper by Twenties.

1725.  Swift, Upright Judge, iii. Wks. 1755, IV. I. 64. My grand-dame had gallants by twenties.

1878.  Athletic World, 6 Dec., 430/1. The game lasting two twenties.

1879.  Browning, Ned Bratts, 34. A twenty-five were tried, rank puritans caught at prayer In a cow-house.

  b.  Something equivalent to twenty of some unit, e.g., a twenty-pound bank-note.

1850.  Househ. Words, 21 Sept., 620/1. There were two twenties, were there not?

  C.  A sheet (of a book) folded into 20 leaves (4 × 5), or each leaf of such a sheet. (Cf. TWENTYMO.)

1771.  Luckombe, Hist. Printing, 418. A Sheet of Twenties.

1824.  J. Johnson, Typogr., II. vii. 172. [headed *28] A Half Sheet of Twenties.

  3.  Something characterized in some way by the number twenty. So the compound numerals, as twenty-four (a flower-pot of which there are 24 in a ‘cast,’ etc.). See also (in special senses) TWENTY-FIVE, TWENTY-FOUR.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 515. Those that have the strongest roots re-pot into twenty-fours.

1851.  Glenny, Handbk. Fl. Gard., 251. In June, the potted ones will bear shifting to a size twenty-four.

1895.  Daily News, 22 Feb., 4/6. From twenties to twenty-fours, that is, from cotton with twenty hanks in the pound to the finer sort of cotton with twenty-four hanks in the pound.

  4.  pl. The numbers from 20 to 29; the years in a century or of one’s life, or the degrees of any scale (e.g., of a thermometer) so numbered.

1874.  Miss Mulock, My Mother & I, xiv. 301. In their twenties girls feel differently from what they do in their teens.

1886.  Athenæum, 16 Oct., 495/2. Little Claude Ramsay … in his twenties is always thinking about ‘the draught.’

1886.  Seeley, Short Hist. Napoleon, 262. Had Louis XV. died in childhood, as was expected, there would certainly have been in the twenties a war of the French Succession.

1893.  Louisa Twining, Recoll., 242. A temperature in the twenties for some days.

1893.  Georgiana Hill, Hist. Eng. Dress, II. 235. Arrayed in the costume of the twenties.

1894.  Voice (N. Y.), 22. Feb. In age I judged them to be near the middle of the twenties.

  5.  attrib. (and ellipt.) as in twenty (twenty-two, etc.) port, port wine of the year 1820 (1822, etc.).

1860.  All Year Round, No. 54. 87. Acquainted with ’Twenty port, and comet vintages.

1891.  S. Mostyn, Curatica, 10. Mostyn likes the 22 Port very much.

  C.  Combinations.

  a.  Adjs. or attrib. phrases formed by twenty with a sb. (= measuring, containing, weighing, etc., twenty of the things named), as twenty-centimeter, -cubit, -foot († twenty-foot worm, a centipede), -grain, -gun, -inch, -knot, -man, -mark, -mile, -minute, -penny, -plume (applied to a small species of moth, Alucita polydactyla), -pound, -round, -shilling, -yard, -year; so with compound numerals, as twenty-five-foot; twenty-four-carat, -feet, -hour, -thread; twenty-one-inch; twenty-thousand-ton; twenty-two-mile, etc. Also twenty-bore, twenty-two-gauge, etc. (of a gun: cf. twelve-bore s.v. TWELVE III. c). b. Parasynthetic sbs. (see -ER¹ 1), as twenty-footer, -knotter, -pointer, -pounder; so with the compound numerals, as twenty-eight (-four, -six, -thousand, etc.) -pounder, twenty-one-gunner, etc. c. Parasynthetic adjs., as twenty-breeched, -colored.

1892.  Greener, Breech-Loader, 43. The *20-bore has been strenuously advocated by writers in the sporting papers, but there are very few sold.

1908.  Outlook, 29 Aug., 280/1. The light twelve-bores now built especially for ladies’ use … weigh no more than sixteen- or even twenty-bore guns of average weight.

1819.  Scott, Leg. Montrose, ii. A soldier of honour shall be dragged … before a base mechanical burgomaster,… as if he were one of their own mean, amphibious, *twenty-breeched boors.

1904.  Daily Chron., 28 May, 5/4. *20-centimetre guns.

1600.  Fairfax, Tasso, XVI. xxiv. Nor golden Iris so bendes in the aire Her *twentie colour’d bow.

1877.  Tennyson, Harold, III. i. Golden cherubim With *twenty-cubit wings.

1684.  J. Peter, Siege Vienna, 109. *Twenty eight pounders.

1897.  Outing (U.S.), XXX. 355/2. Two twenty-seven-footers,… Rocky John, as the Commodore’s *twenty-five-foot craft was dubbed.

c. 1475.  Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 766/28. Hic multipes, a *tuentifot-wurme.

1910.  Encycl. Brit., x. 258/1. Several large feeding-drains were dug, including the Forty Foot,… the Sixteen Foot river,… and the Twenty Foot river.

1899.  Daily News, 18 Nov., 4/5. A twenty-foot snake … had a quarrel with a fourteen-foot snake. The fourteen-footer was eating a chicken, which the *twenty-footer coveted.

1900.  Sarah Grand, Babs, lxxxi. A. regular *twenty-four carat cad—without alloy.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 82. The superior velocity of the *24 feet wheel.

1908.  Westm. Gaz., 25 May, 5/2. The *twenty-four-hour trip across the country.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 135. *24, 30, and 40-penny nails.

1825.  J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, III. 380. A few *twenty four pound shot.

1684.  J. Peter, Siege Vienna, 108. *Twenty four pounder.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), I iv. A piece that discharges a ball of twenty-four pounds, is called a twenty-four-pounder.

1903.  Daily Chron., 30 May, 5/1. A light rod and *24-thread line.

1890.  Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., III. 40. A *twenty-grain solution of gelatine.

1747.  J. Lind, Lett. Navy, i. (1757), 34. All captains of 20, 40, and 50 gun ships [should rank as] as lieutenant colonels.

1849.  Noad, Electricity, 92. A *twenty-inch cylinder electrical machine.

1903.  Daily Chron., 3 July, 8/2. The *twenty-knot wind blowing here to-day.

1898.  Harper’s Mag., XCVI. 830. They [ships] are to be *twenty-knotters.

1905.  Daily Chron., 24 July, 7/1. A member of the English *twenty-man team.

1788.  J. Skinner, Eccl. Hist. Scot., II. 588. These itinerant preachers were … called the *‘Twenty Merk Men.’

1908.  Daily Chron., 4 Aug., 1/2. The Kaiser … rewarded him with a twenty mark piece. Ibid. (1902), 10 May, 10/1. Come down to the country and take *twenty-mile walks.

1905.  Westm. Gaz., 4 Aug., 6/3. Districts within the twenty-mile radius of London. Ibid. (1898), 27 July, 1/1. The *twenty-minute sitting [of the House of Lords].

1900.  Daily Chron., 31 Aug., 5/1. The Gaekwar is a *‘twenty-one gunner’—one of the three Indian Princes who alone are entitled to the royal salute.

1794.  W. Hutchinson, Hist. Cumberld., I. 175, note. 3 l. a year customary rent … with a *twenty-penny fine.

1908.  Westm. Gaz., 11 Sept., 10/1. Some remarkably fine heads have been secured in Highland deer forests…. A *twenty-pointer was killed by Lord Burton … fifteen years ago.

1761–2.  Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), III. 800. The small proprietors, or *twenty-pound men.

1822.  Galt, Provost, xxx. I received a twenty-pound note.

1861.  W. F. Collier, Hist. Eng. Lit., 403. A silver-scaled *twenty-pounder [salmon].

1891.  S. C. Scrivener, Our Fields & Cities, 39. Persons paying rates on twenty pounds…. These twenty-pounders.

1899.  Daily News, 12 Jan., 7/5. A *twenty-round glove fight.

1797.  Chron., 4 March, in Ann. Reg., 14/1. *Twenty shilling Notes were issued by the Bank of England.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxii. IV. 698. The ministers at one time resolved to issue twentyshilling bills … for the payment of the troops.

1684.  J. Peter, Siege Vienna, 109. *Twenty six pounders.

1756.  Connoisseur, No. 121, ¶ 6. A careful old gentleman came … to marry his son, and was recommended … to a *twenty thousand pounder.

1909.  Daily Chron., 25 Sept., 5/5. The nineteen or *twenty-thousand ton Dreadnoughts.

1840.  Blaine, Encycl. Rur. Sports, § 2430. The higher the number of bullets [to the pound], the smaller is the caliber…. Mr. Joseph Manton … recommends two-feet-eight and *twenty-two gauge as a general sporting length and bore of gun-barrel.

1902.  Westm. Gaz., 7 Nov., 2/1. A *twenty-two-mile bridge across the Great Salt Lake. Ibid. (1903), 23 Oct., 3/1. You practically never see a *twenty-yard putt go ten yards off the line of the hole. Ibid. (1902), 2 Sept., 8/2. Rated … heavily upon the *twenty-year endowment plan.