# Do any languages have a single word for "one-and-a-half"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920 "2011-01-25T14:19:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/41 "2011-01-27T11:20:42Z")
Oops. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/42 "2011-01-27T12:10:40Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > _Ettusenniohundra_ in Swedish. And \*tuhatyhdeksänsataa \*in Finnish. If the tour guide writer really is Finnish like **Anaamika** said it’s even weirder that he would make this claim as, like stated before, we have a word for “one and a half”, \*puolitoista \*(“half of the second”). This is also how other numbers used to be: even now, 11-19 is \*yksitoista \*(one of the second [ten])…\*yhdeksäntoista \*(nine of the the second [ten]), and 20 is \*kaksikymmentä \*(two tens), but in yonder years, it carried on past that so 25, for example, would be \*viisikolmatta \*(five of the third ten). ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/43 "2011-01-27T12:23:07Z")
> [@Walpurgis](#): > > The Danish equivalent however, _halvanden_, is an everyday word. As is the Norwegian equivalent, _halvannen._ For some reason it seems to be especially common when describing stretches of time: _halvannen time,_ an hour and a half. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/44 "2011-01-27T16:30:12Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > How do you say “second” in Polish now, then? _Drugi (druga/drugie/drudzy)_ is the usual word for the ordinal “second.” Looks like _wtóry_ does exist in the language–but it’s an old word that isn’t used much in contemporary Polish. According to [this](http://grzegorj.w.interia.pl/lingwen/etymlicz.html): > [@](#): > > The numeral drugi supplanted the OPol. and OCS form wtóry \< vьtorъ (or vъtorъ), possibly from \*witero-, cf. Skr. vitaras ‘leading farther / away’, vi- ‘apart’. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/45 "2011-01-27T16:48:17Z")
This is, without a doubt the finest place in the cyber world to ask off the wall questions! Tris ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/46 "2011-01-27T21:54:23Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > _Drugi (druga/drugie/drudzy)_ is the usual word for the ordinal “second.” That’s interesting. In Bulgarian, _drug_ means “other”, and _drugar_ is “comrade”. (I believe it means “friend” in Russian.) No real point, it’s just neat to see how languages fit together. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/47 "2011-01-27T22:15:00Z")
> [@wintertime](#): > > Germanic languages show a tendency to form new words from known ones by “smashing” them together; it’s not as often or as quickly done in English as in German or Swedish but still common: the mailman is the Briefträger (letter carrier), for example… They’re called compounds and English does it all time. What makes _Briefträger_ any different from _mail carrier_, other than the fact that when it’s written, there’s no space between the words? In speech, there are no spaces or hyphens. And words formed with prefixes are effectively compounds, too. Most of what is mentioned above in this thread are compounds. I think what **Anaamika** is interested in are NON-compound words. That is to say, a word that cannot be separated into _meaningful_ constituent parts. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/48 "2011-01-28T00:23:34Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > That’s interesting. In Bulgarian, _drug_ means “other”, and _drugar_ is “comrade”. (I believe it means “friend” in Russian.) “Drugi” can also mean “other” in Polish, as well. “Drug” is indeed “friend” in Russian (and the source of the word “droog,” in _A Clockwork Orange_. Russian and just generally Slavic languages were the basis for a lot of the futuristic slang in that book.) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/49 "2011-01-28T00:48:08Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Most of what is mentioned above in this thread are compounds. I think what Anaamika is interested in are NON-compound words. That is to say, a word that cannot be separated into meaningful constituent parts. Well, by that standard, I’m not sure that even the OP’s Hindi example _dedh/derh_ counts as non-compound. It’s just a worn-down form of the original Sanskrit _dvaiyardha_, a compound formed from _dvi_ “two” and _ardha_ “half” (i.e., “half [of the] second”, like “anderhalf” etc.). There are lots of words that we tend to think of as “single words” that are in fact originally formed from compounds (for instance, English “husband” from _hus_ “house” and _bondi_ “dweller”). I’m not convinced that Hindi _dedh_ should automatically count as “non-compound” while words like _anderhalf_ shouldn’t, merely because the compound origin of _dedh_ is less immediately recognizable. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/50 "2011-01-28T02:30:53Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Well, by that standard, I’m not sure that even the OP’s Hindi example _dedh/derh_ counts as non-compound. It’s just a worn-down form of the original Sanskrit _dvaiyardha_, a compound formed from _dvi_ “two” and _ardha_ “half” (i.e., “half [of the] second”, like “anderhalf” etc.). Well if that’s the case then perhaps **Anaamika** ’s tour guide was just selling a bill of goods, because that isn’t anything so special. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920/51 "2011-01-29T15:12:59Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Well if that’s the case then perhaps **Anaamika** ’s tour guide was just selling a bill of goods, because that isn’t anything so special. In my experience, tour guide information should always be \*highly \*suspect unless confirmed by a reliable source. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-languages-have-a-single-word-for-one-and-a-half/568920.md?page=2)