Twentig

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An obsolete spelling of the number twenty, the cardinal figure equal to two tens
2. An archaic form denoting the quantity that comes after nineteen and before twenty-one in counting
3. A old-fashioned numeral meaning twenty, used in earlier English writing to name that quantity

Etymology: "Twentig" is an Old English numeral, the ancestor of the modern "twenty," and its story is mostly one of a sound changing shape over several centuries. The Old English form was "twentig," built from "twegen" ("two") and "tig," a word meaning "decade" or "group of ten." Literally, a twenty was two tens. The same pattern runs through the other tens: "thritig" (thirty) is "three tens," and so on up the line. Over time the spelling and pronunciation shifted, and the "-ig" ending eventually became "-y" in Middle English, while the "w" in "twe-" was reshaped and the vowel changed, giving the modern "twenty." Other Germanic languages preserve the same logic; German "zwanzig" follows the same pattern, though its ending came out differently. The modern word is the same compound, only worn down. Its ending "-ty" is the same ending seen in "thirty," "forty," and "sixty," which all share a root meaning "ten" or "group of ten."

Synonyms: score