"but gretchen, if six score was a hundred, what did they call five score, aka The Number Previously Known As A Hundred?" don't worry my friend, this number was known by the extremely logical name of "tenty"
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i feel the need to make you aware of this cursèd and entirely real wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_hundred …pic.twitter.com/5knzppTdgQ
![The long hundred, also known as the great hundred or twelfty,[1] is the number that was referred to as "hundred" in Germanic languages prior to the 15th century, which is now known as 120, one hundred and twenty, or six score.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ebu9cFPXQAAtnCN.png)
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I mean, we still use "dozen", I'm just saying!!
#BringBackTwelfty2k20 https://twitter.com/kylejbritt/status/1277825126529224705 …This Tweet is unavailable.Show this thread -
"but wait, if we had a base-12 system, wouldn't we need a word for 144?" my friend....we already dohttps://twitter.com/mostlysafe/status/1277825436064665600 …
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headcanon accepted or should i say, hundredcanon acceptedhttps://twitter.com/MarissaSkud/status/1277826456500887552 …
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cross-referencing OED & Etymonline, and…maybe? "Old English had hund endleofantig for "110" and hund twelftig for "120." The -tig formation ran through 12 cycles, and could have bequeathed us numbers *eleventy ("110") and *twelfty ("120") had it endured" https://twitter.com/leftoblique/status/1277825373846163457 …pic.twitter.com/bwNV7Z3xt6
![eleventy, adj.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ᵻˈlɛvnti/, U.S. /əˈlɛvən(t)i/, /iˈlɛvən(t)i/
Frequency (in current use):
Origin: Formed within English, by derivation.
Chiefly in combination with a number or other quantifier: amounting to a very large (but indefinite) number or quantity. Also occasionally: one hundred and ten.
1841 Bell's Life in London 23 May 2/2 We calculate about eleven hundred and eleventy-eleven [carriages].
1905 Boston Post 18 Apr. 6/3 She got a rug remnant at a bargain sale downtown for eleventy-nine cents.
1954 J. R. R. Tolkien Fellowship of Ring i. i. 29 Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday.
1986 Sun (Baltimore) 26 Jan. 4 e/1 The number of copies made in American offices grew from about 20 million in 1955..to approximately eleventy zillion today.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbvBss_XQAAADWB.jpg)
![English, like many other Germanic languages, retains traces of a base-12 number system. The most obvious instance is eleven and twelve which ought to be the first two numbers of the "teens" series. Their Old English forms, enleofan and twel(eo)f(an), are more transparent: "leave one" and "leave two."
Old English also had hund endleofantig for "110" and hund twelftig for "120." One hundred was hund teantig. The -tig formation ran through 12 cycles, and could have bequeathed us numbers *eleventy ("110") and *twelfty ("120") had it endured, but already during the Anglo-Saxon period it was being obscured.
Old Norse used hundrað for "120" and þusend for "1,200." Tvauhundrað was "240" and þriuhundrað was "360." Older Germanic legal texts distinguished a "common hundred" (100) from a "great hundred" (120). This duodecimal system is "perhaps due to contact with Babylonia" [Lass, "Old English"].](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbvBuXJWoAAQXft.jpg)
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numbers are meaningless, time is fake, let's have some base-12, as a treat https://twitter.com/kylejbritt/status/1277826851629666304 …
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yes!! extremely confusing!!! that's why people started distinguishing them by adding "long" and "short" "I'll have a hundred fish" *gives 5 score* "ah, no, i meant a LONG hundred" they're retronyms, like acoustic guitar and landline phonehttps://twitter.com/mostlysafe/status/1277827666540978181 …
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petition to distinguish between 100 and 120 by calling them "hundred" and "humdred"https://twitter.com/JanuaryMorris/status/1277831032532762626 …
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I regret only that I encountered Long Hundred after we'd already made this
@lingthusiasm episode about Weird Number+Language Stuff, because it woulda been PERFECThttps://twitter.com/lingthusiasm/status/1258568236460920834 …New bonus episode and it's about numbers!
Listen for: counting gestures, fossilized number systems (which explain words like eleven), different base systems from base 6 to base 27, and indefinite hyperbolic numerals like "bazillion" and "umpteen"
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Ah, it sounds like folks probably also want the link to the Wikipedia article about finger-counting gestures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger-counting …https://twitter.com/aelleaelle/status/1277830098415226880 …
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"yes I know you agreed to pay me $500 but I actually put in the contract that I was to be paid in long hundreds"https://twitter.com/easternblot/status/1277835288610570240 …
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okay but what about...a counting system COMBINING yan tan tethera and long hundredshttps://twitter.com/RHendery/status/1277838940716756992 …
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where are the speakers of the other germanic languages, surely they must be waking up by now i just want to know if the following are more or less cursed than twelfty: zwölfzig twaalftig tolvti tólftíu tolve tolvtio tolvetichhttps://twitter.com/sdvrie/status/1277846149559463936 …
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I thought quatre-vingt dix had prepared me....I was not preparedhttps://twitter.com/M__Verbruggen/status/1277836652803772417 …
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do....do i want to know how many kinds of dozen there are in germanyhttps://twitter.com/FranzSauerstein/status/1277854985573761024 …
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i'm kinda sad we didn't use this as an excuse to develop "long billion" and "short billion"https://twitter.com/jfruh/status/1277833142972248065 …
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oh no some sort of lifestyle magazine is going to make this the new hygge aren't theyhttps://twitter.com/M__Verbruggen/status/1277856646543421441 …
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I see
@RHendery's favourite wool-counting numbers upthread and raise her...egg-counting numbershttps://twitter.com/FranzSauerstein/status/1277857896605331456 …Show this thread -
sometimes I hate being righthttps://twitter.com/M__Verbruggen/status/1277859679297773568 …
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you know what, as long as it always refers to the SAME quantity of sable pelts, i'm fine with ithttps://twitter.com/TaupeTrope/status/1277860157033074689 …
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wait drölf is adorable (context for non-German speakers, that's a portmanteau of drei 3 and zwölf 12, I guess the English equivalent would be threlve)https://twitter.com/FranzSauerstein/status/1277860165262487552 …
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whereas now, I for one just use "metric" in this context as an intensifier, short for metric fuckton (proof from BECAUSE INTERNET) https://twitter.com/linguistlaura/status/1277873057084907525 …pic.twitter.com/QXcSctTpxn
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everyone is! language is an open-source project and you are contributing to it all the time!https://twitter.com/JanuaryMorris/status/1277835070129295360 …
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I love this! can we revive joint-counting!https://twitter.com/sigmastarstate/status/1277936020449832960 …
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alright the new umpteen is threlfty, pass it onhttps://twitter.com/towo/status/1277863111106727936 …
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fifty-eleven is also extremely good (and, I suspect, may also once have been a real number)https://twitter.com/bananders/status/1277868950001508357 …
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Yup, I definitely encountered the vigesimal system in my youth learning a bit of Scottish Gaelic as well https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fichead#:~:text=In%20the%20older%2C%20vigesimal%20system,%5Btimes%5D%20twenty%20books%E2%80%9D …https://twitter.com/MkGiles/status/1277872519144525824 …
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