# Antentwig

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 23, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013 "2014-12-23T15:21:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/21 "2015-01-07T03:38:50Z")

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Een-en-twentig would make sense, though… wonder if that was his starting point?

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**Author:** ![jj5406](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@jj5406](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jj5406)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/22 "2015-01-09T20:48:54Z")

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First, my apologies to Mike Pesca, who responded to my emails very rapidly. It’s only due to a quirk of my system that I didn’t actually see those replies until much later.

On Jan 5 Mike Pesca wrote:

> [@](#):
>
> I saw your Straight Dope discussion, and wanted to ad (but am blocked by the administrator or something)
> 
> It is from very close to what 21 would be in Olde English.
> 
> [http://wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/inflnumb.html](http://wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/inflnumb.html)
> 
> The numbers thirteen through nineteen are made by adding -tīene to the numbers þrēo through nigon: þrēotīene, fēowertīene, etc. From twenty through the sixties, numbers are in the form ān and twentiġ ‘twenty-one’.
> 
> Just like the word “fortnight” is very close to the Olde English for [14]. But over the weeks I stopped saying An-and- twentig and just went with Antantwig, sounded better. So I did in a few weeks what it [normally] takes a language a few generations to do on its own.

So capybara, you were right on.

-J

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**Author:** ![Leah\_NYC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Leah\_NYC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leah_NYC)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antentwig/708013/23 "2015-06-20T19:50:32Z")

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Just registered on straight dope for the sole purpose of thanking you guys for providing such a satisfying thread.

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