# Non-compound number names, \>10 **URL:** \ **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:** 2
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/21 "2009-02-06T00:43:26Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > 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. Obligatory _Schoolhouse Rock_ reference. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/22 "2009-02-06T00:53:30Z")
10…dime 55…double nickel ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/23 "2009-02-06T00:56:36Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > 10…dime Well, besides the fact that the OP wanted numbers \> 10, “dime”, “decimal”, and “ten” are all etymologically related. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/24 "2009-02-06T01:03:00Z")
13…bakers dozen, long dozen 50…half-century 60…shock 100…century I know, it doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/25 "2009-02-06T01:08:23Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > 50…half-century Surely, this counts as being composed from terms for other numbers to be multiplied? (Come to think of it, a similar, but less direct, thing happens with “double nickel” as well [though “nickel” itself for 5 would be interesting if it weren’t below the limit]. And, of course, “baker’s dozen” contains within it the problematic “dozen”) “shock” for 60 sounds interesting. I’ve never heard it before; could you show an example? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/26 "2009-02-06T01:41:01Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > “shock” for 60 sounds interesting. I’ve never heard it before; could you show an example? I never heard of it before either, but I pulled it from a table in[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_numbers). However I can’t find any confirmation of its use. Wikipedia has never let me down before.:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![AllWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@AllWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllWalker)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/27 "2009-02-06T06:41:50Z")
Find a language which uses a base system greater than 10. Or, now that I think about it, find some computer geeks who primarily count in hexadecimal. That would give you A-F for ten-fifteen. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/28 "2009-02-06T08:49:19Z")
I’ve got a real life actual bonafide example. The Russian word for forty, сорок [/so’rək] has a very unclear etymology but absolutely no relation to the word for four, четыре [/čety’rye]. In all other cases (90, девяносто, is something of an exception), Russia does follow the pattern (a pattern which is prevalent in Slavic languages) for getting the multiples of 10 under 100: два - двадцать; (dva - dva’tsət’) три - тридцать; (tri - tri’tsət’) . . . восемь - восемьдесят; (vo’sim’ - vo’sim’dye’syət’) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/29 "2009-02-06T10:36:04Z")
Etymonline confirms ‘shock’, but not as part of a counting system as such: > [@](#): > > “bundle of grain,” c.1325, from M.L.G. schok “shock of corn,” originally “group of sixty,” from P.Gmc. \*skukka- (cf. O.S. skok, Du. schok “sixty pieces,” Ger. Hocke “heap of sheaves”). > **[Shock - Etymology, Origin & Meaning](https://www.etymonline.com/word/shock)** > > "violent encounter of armed forces or a pair of warriors," a military term, from French… See origin and meaning of shock. Wikipedia does mention that [Chepang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chepang) uses base 12, but without elaborating. Also remember the [Babylonian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal) base-60 influence on our own measurements of time. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/30 "2009-02-06T11:14:02Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > [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. Off topic, but the examples from the Lakes are thought to be of [Cumbric](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbric_language), not Welsh, origin, probably a distinct Brythonic language, aftter the battle of Chester split the population into three: Wales, the North (including Strathclyde) and Cornwall. There’s more examples from the Lakes (every area has a distinct but related counting system), [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbric_language#Counting_systems_of_possible_Cumbric_origin). ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/31 "2009-02-06T12:25:47Z")
Skimmed through, and don’t think I’ve seen “googol,” 10^100, yet. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/32 "2009-02-06T12:33:54Z")
Less than 100, not less than 10^100 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/33 "2009-02-06T12:55:28Z")
D’oh! That’s what I get for skimming. Just ignore that one… ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/34 "2009-02-06T13:00:45Z")
Rawr, just spent some time writing a little treatise about an unusual number in Japanese, but when looking for cites found a source that confirmed my uninformed suspicion that it is, in a roundabout way, a combination of numbers. Just an unusual combination. Wasn’t an Indo-European language anyway. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/35 "2009-02-06T17:01:56Z")
“snes” is another version of twenty etymologically not a compound of other numbers. The wacky Danes base their names for 50-100 on it, us Norwegians only occasionally use it for twenty. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/36 "2009-02-06T19:39:23Z")
Wow, this thread has borne more fruit than I expected. OK, I really wasn’t looking for “google,” but at this point I’ll open it up to numbers \>99. Yeesh. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/37 "2009-02-06T19:50:39Z")
Google is a search engine. The number is “googol”. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/38 "2009-02-06T20:17:04Z")
Yeah, that spelling distinction is doomed now. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/39 "2009-02-06T20:44:52Z")
> [@AllWalker](#): > > Find a language which uses a base system greater than 10. Or, now that I think about it, find some computer geeks who primarily count in hexadecimal. That would give you A-F for ten-fifteen. Surely this violates the spirit if not the letter of the OP? If not, it just begs the further question: Are there non-compound names for numbers \>B (besides integer powers of B), where B is the base of the number system? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487/40 "2009-02-06T21:44:09Z")
There are languages that use something like “twenty less one” for 19, but I’ll have to research to comeup with specifics. No one mentioned _soixante-dix_, _quatre-vingts_ and _quatre-vingts-dix_ for 70, 80 and 90 in Parisian French (Swiss French has _septante, huitante_, and _nonante_). My understanding is that Welsh and Hawaiian, like the Parisian French examples above, both have some counting by twenties. … **Švejk** gave Russian _сорок_, which I had thought had a similar meaning as that **GorillaMan** gave for “shock”. EDIT: I don’t think I followed the OP quite right. _Cорок_ and _bumpit_ the best examples in the thread so far. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-compound-number-names-10/484487.md?page=3)