Etymology

forty

for·ty
F4O1R1T1Y4

Today it means: The cardinal number occurring after thirty-nine and before forty-one, represented in Roman numerals as XL and in Arabic numerals as 40. Full definition →

Middle English fourty ← Old English fēowertiġ ← Proto-West Germanic *feuwar tigiwi
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forty · numeral, noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kʷetwṓr
  2. Proto-Germanic*fedwōr
  3. Proto-Indo-European*déḱm̥
  4. Proto-Indo-European*déḱm̥-t(-s)
  5. Proto-Germanic*tegun(dz)
  6. Proto-Germanic*tigiwiz
  7. Proto-Germanic*fedwōr tigiwiz
  8. Proto-West Germanic*feuwar tigiwi
  9. Old Englishfēowertiġ
  10. Middle Englishfourty
  11. English todayforty

From Middle English fourty, forty, from Old English fēowertiġ, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr tigiwiz (“forty”). By surface analysis, four + -ty.

forty · adjective2

From fort + y.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.