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Definition 2024

twelfty

(nonstandard) One hundred twenty; 120.
- 1854, Thomas H. Palmer, Arithmetic, Oral and Written, page 36:
  Thirty-six from a hundred and twenty-nine? [twelvety-nine.]
- 1922, International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Report and Proceedings of the Convention, page 1:
  The twelfty-six [126] weeks' strike taught us the value of being organized

one hundred twenty

twelve +‎ -ty
From Old English hundtwelftig. Compare hundseofontig, hundeahtatig, hundnigontig and hundtēontig for modern seventy, eighty, ninety and hundred, reflecting the old Germanic hybrid base-ten and base-twelve numbering system. This hund was used for counting higher decades, and eventually became the root of hundred. Hund originally meant 120 (now called a long hundred or great hundred, and preserved in the term hundredweight), but was used to translate multiples of Latin centum ‎(“100”), and eventually picked up that value when used in isolation as well.