Tenners

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Informal names for banknotes worth ten pounds or ten dollars ; informal British slang for a prison sentence lasting ten years
2. Colloquial references to paper money worth ten units of currency ; slang for a jail term of ten years in duration
3. Casual terms for ten-pound or ten-dollar notes ; informal speech for a custodial sentence of exactly ten years

Etymology: "Tenner" is a plain formation: the number "ten" with the suffix "-er", which English uses to make a noun from a number or quantity, so a tenner is simply something worth or containing ten. The suffix has a long ancestry, passing from Latin "-arius" through Old French "-ier" into Middle English "-er", and it is the same ending found in words like "dollar" from earlier forms of the same pattern. In the case of "tenner" the suffix attaches to a native English numeral, which is why the word feels so ordinary. The word is most often applied to a ten-pound note, but the same pattern produced "fiver" for a five-pound note and "tenner" was used in parallel for other sums, showing that the formation is a flexible tool rather than a fixed term. Its plural, "tenners", simply adds the regular English "-s" to the noun, so it refers to several such notes.