Long hundred

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The long hundred, also known as the great hundred or twelfty,

100
) instead.

The long hundred was 120, but the long thousand was reckoned decimally as 10 long hundreds (

1200
).

English unit

The hundred (

100 units, mostly because of the continued medieval use of the Germanic long hundred of 120. The unit's use as a measure of weight is now described as a hundredweight
.

The Latin edition of the

fresh herrings (a short hundred of 100 fish), cinnamon, nutmegs (13+1/2 stone of 8 lb), and garlic ("15 ropes of 15 heads" or 225 heads).[3]

History

The existence of a non-decimal base in the earliest traces of the

linen cloth is formed by six score ells, but the hundred of pounds, to be used in measuring bulk goods, is five times twenty, and the hundred of fresh herring is five score fish.[8] Within the original Latin text, the numeral c. is used for a value of 120: Et quodlibet c. continet vi. xx. ("And each such 'hundred' contains six twenties.")[2]
Once the short hundred began coming into use, Old Norse referred to the long hundred as hundrað tolf-roett (lit. 'duodecimal hundred'), as opposed to the short hundrað ti-rætt (lit. 'decimal hundred').

The reckoning by long hundreds waned as Arabic numerals which require the uniform base 10, spread throughout Europe during and after the 14th century.

In modern times, J. R. R. Tolkien's use of the long hundred system within The Lord of the Rings helped popularize the word eleventy in modern English, primarily as a colloquial word for an indefinitely large number.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-87169-168-2
    .
  2. ^ a b Ruffhead, Owen, ed. (1763a), The Statutes at Large, vol.  I: From Magna Charta to the End of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth. To which is prefixed, A Table of the Titles of all the Publick and Private Statutes during that Time, London: Mark Basket for the Crown, pp. 148–149. (in English) & (in Latin) & (in Norman)
  3. ^ Statutes of the Realm, vol. I, London: G. Eyre & A. Strahan, 1810, p. 204
  4. ^ I Cor. 15:6
  5. ^ Gordon, E V (1957). Introduction to Old Norse. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 292–293. Archived from the original on 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2017-09-09.
  6. JSTOR 44243858
    .
  7. S2CID 162146336.[permanent dead link
    ]
  8. ^ Statutes of the Realm, vol. I, London: G. Eyre & A. Strahan, 1810, p. 204

External links

Look up hundred in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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