# Non-compound number names, \>10
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 4, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487 "2009-02-04T22:58:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/1 "2009-02-04T22:58:58Z")
This is an odd one. Are there any words for numbers between 10 & 100 that are not derived from a combination of elements meaning other numbers that can be added or multiplied to get them?
I mean, is there a word for 14 that isn’t “four-(&)-ten,” for example?
I’m looking for words in Indo-European languages, but any will do.
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### Author:  [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/2 "2009-02-04T23:02:53Z")
English _eleven_
Irish _fiche_ = twenty
French _vingt_ = twenty
(and related words for twenty in Latin and other Romance languages)
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/3 "2009-02-04T23:02:55Z")
Eleven?
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### Author:  [@usar\_jag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usar_jag)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/4 "2009-02-04T23:06:52Z")
Twelve?
Would the term “score” count for twenty? Then, there’s “twenty” for that matter…
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### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/5 "2009-02-04T23:19:49Z")
Ok, so the various IE forms of “twenty” (which seem to trace back to a proto-IE word), “eleven,” & “twelve.”
Of course, “twenty” & “twelve” do show marks in English of derivative from “two.”
What else?
ETA: I knew about “score” of course.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/6 "2009-02-04T23:20:50Z")
Surely there are dozens!
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### Author:  [@ivn1188](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivn1188)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/7 "2009-02-04T23:28:19Z")
> [@Pochacco](#):
>
> Surely there are dozens!
That’s gross.
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/8 "2009-02-05T00:39:18Z")
Spanish: once, doce, trece, catorce, quince
French: onze, duoze, treize, quatroze, quinze, seize
German: elf, zwölf
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### Author:  [@Euryphaessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euryphaessa)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/9 "2009-02-05T00:51:06Z")
Oops, misread.
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### Author:  [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/10 "2009-02-05T01:07:10Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#):
>
> Ok, so the various IE forms of “twenty” (which seem to trace back to a proto-IE word), “eleven,” & “twelve.”
Eh, as you say, English “twenty” is pretty clearly derived along the lines “twain-tens”. Similarly, “eleven” along the lines “one left” and “twelve” along the lines “two left”. I dunno; it doesn’t seem much different from “thirteen” as “three-ten”.
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### Author:  [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/11 "2009-02-05T01:09:52Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#):
>
> Eh, as you say, English “twenty” is pretty clearly derived along the lines “twain-tens”. Similarly, “eleven” along the lines “one left” and “twelve” along the lines “two left”. I dunno; it doesn’t seem much different from “thirteen” as “three-ten”.
That is definitely the case in Spanish. Once, Doce, Trece, Catorce, Quince are clearly following the pattern of 12345… with the “ce” at the end, which probably makes more sense in some other related language.
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### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/12 "2009-02-05T22:43:19Z")
Most of the words named thus far, if traced far enough back, are not etymologically distinct from other numbers. Even the Germanic “eleven” appears to mean “_one_ left.”
So there’s “score.”
This is pretty much what I expected.
Well, any slang words? Anything?
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### Author:  [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/13 "2009-02-05T22:46:45Z")
Well, there’s “gross” for 144, though it falls afoul of your under 100 rule.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/14 "2009-02-05T22:50:47Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#):
>
> Anything?
As I said above, there are DOZENS.
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### Author:  [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/15 "2009-02-05T22:52:21Z")
“dozen” is etymologically from “duodecim”; i.e., “two-ten”.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/16 "2009-02-05T22:54:21Z")
In Bengali, counting from 1 to 100 is fairly complicated. In some places there are patterns, but those patterns are not always explained by (X number + Y number)
&k dui tin char pa~ch chhoe shat ath noe dosh
&garo baro t&ro choddo ponero sholo shatero athero unish kuri
ekush baish teish chobbish po~chish chhabbish shatash athash unotrish tirish
ektrish botrish tetrish choutrish po~ytrish …
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/17 "2009-02-05T23:42:55Z")
Sheep-counting numbers from East Sussex:
yan
tan
tethera
pethera
pimp
sethera
lethera
hovera
covera
dik
yan-a-dik
tan-a-dik
tethera-dik
pethera-dik
bumpit (15)
yan-a-bumpit
tan-a-bumpit
tethera-bumpit
pethera-bumpit
figgit (20)
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/18 "2009-02-06T00:29:41Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Sheep-counting numbers from East Sussex:
> yan
> tan
> tethera
> pethera
> pimp
> sethera
> lethera
> hovera
> covera
> dik
> yan-a-dik
> tan-a-dik
> tethera-dik
> pethera-dik
> bumpit (15)
> yan-a-bumpit
> tan-a-bumpit
> tethera-bumpit
> pethera-bumpit
> figgit (20)
[This](http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba46/ba46int.html) offers other dialects/languages, too. 15 certainly seems to be important, and I suppose there’s an obvious logic to using base 15 in an oral situation - counting to 10 on hands is no problem, and you can keep one hand still fully-counted while using the digits of the other to count an extra four, before starting over. That’s a WAG, mind.
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### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/19 "2009-02-06T00:32:32Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Sheep-counting numbers from East Sussex:
> yan
> tan
> tethera
> pethera
> pimp
> sethera
> lethera
> hovera
> covera
> dik
> yan-a-dik
> tan-a-dik
> tethera-dik
> pethera-dik
> bumpit (15)
> yan-a-bumpit
> tan-a-bumpit
> tethera-bumpit
> pethera-bumpit
> figgit (20)
I am so using “bumpit.” In context, it looks like a vowel-shifted contraction of _pimp + dik_, but it’s so munged, who cares?
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2009, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/20 "2009-02-06T00:39:57Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#):
>
> I am so using “bumpit.” In context, it looks like a vowel-shifted contraction of _pimp + dik_, but it’s so munged, who cares?
Taking another look at the list I linked to, base 5 seems to dominate, actually. Particularly for rapid counting, where the rhythms lend themselves to grouping into fives.
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