douăzeci

Forms

douăzeci (cardinal numeral, invariable; ordinal al douăzecilea, feminine a douăzecea)^[2][3] Old forms were doaozeci, doozeci and douuzeci.^[3][4] A text from before 1716, printed in Gaster's chrestomathy, has doăzeci: „dând bacșiș câte zece galbeni și câte doăzeci acelor ieniceri ce l-au adus” “giving as a tip ten gold coins each, and twenty to the janissaries who had brought him”.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian două + zeci: the feminine of doi (“two”) and the plural of zece (“ten”), “two tens”.^{[3][4][5][2][1]} The feminine form of the first part shows that the word for “ten” was feminine, as is Albanian dhjetë (“ten”) in tridhjetë (“thirty”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are of 1561, in the form doaozeci: the Codex Bratul and Coresi's Tetraevanghel (John 6:19).^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides the cardinal number, the word forms the adverbial de douăzeci de ori “twenty times” and the distributive câte douăzeci “twenty each”.^[2][4] Used for the ordinal, it names a century or a page: secolul douăzeci.^[2] As a masculine noun it names the figure 20.^[4][6]

Timeline

• 1561 – doaozeci, in the Codex Bratul and Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[3][5]
• 1599 – the ordinal al doozecilea, in a document.^[3]
• 1688 – douăzeci in the Bucharest Bible (Judges 10:3).^[7]
• before 1716 – doăzeci, in a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[4]

Meanings

Numeral

1. twenty: the number between nineteen and twenty-one.^[2][6][1]
2. (with ordinal value) twentieth, as in secolul douăzeci “the twentieth century”.^[2][6]

Noun

1. The figure 20.^[4][6]

Related words

• doi
• zece
• treizeci

Usage notes

Before a noun it takes de: douăzeci de oameni.^[4] The stress is on the last syllable, do-uă- is pronounced as two syllables, and some regional speech stresses dâuăzeci.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 329
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. doi
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. douăzeci
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. douăzéci
6. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 749
7. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Judges 10:3