twenty: [OE] Twenty is etymologically ‘two tens’. The second syllable, -ty, is related to ten, and twen- goes back to the same source as two, although its precise ancestry is not clear. => ten, two
twenty (n.)
Old English twentig "group of twenty," from twegen "two" (see two) + -tig "group of ten" (see -ty (1)). Cognate with Old Saxon twentig , Old Frisian twintich, Dutch twintig, Old High German zweinzug, German zwanzig. Gothic twai tigjus is even more transparent: literally "two tens."
The card game twenty-one (1790) is from French vingt-et-un (1781). Twenty-twenty hindsight is first recorded 1962, a figurative use of the Snellen fraction for normal visual acuity, expressed in feet. The guessing game of twenty questions is recorded from 1786.
雙語例句
1. Brian counted to twenty and lifted his binoculars. Elena did the same.
布賴恩數(shù)到20，舉起了雙筒望遠(yuǎn)鏡。埃琳娜也照著做了。
來自柯林斯例句
2. By the time he's twenty he'll know everyone worth knowing in Washington.
到20歲時，他就會認(rèn)識華盛頓所有值得認(rèn)識的人。
來自柯林斯例句
3. Take a hundred and twenty values and calculate the mean.
取120個值計算平均數(shù)。
來自柯林斯例句
4. Southbound traffic tailed back for twenty miles on the M5 near Bristol.
在布里斯托爾附近的5號高速公路上，南行的車輛排成了綿延20英里的長龍。
來自柯林斯例句
5. The agent spied for East Germany for more than twenty years.