twelfty

The story

1. Old English · inherited fromhundtwelftiġ
2. English todaytwelfty

From twelve + -ty, from Old English hundtwelftiġ. Compare hundseofontiġ, hundeahtatig, hundniġontiġ and hundtēontiġ for modern seventy, eighty, ninety and one hundred, reflecting the old Germanic hybrid base-ten and base-twelve numbering system. This hund was used for counting higher decades, and eventually became the root of hundred. Hund originally meant 120 (now called a long hundred or great hundred, and preserved in the term hundredweight), but was used to translate multiples of Latin centum (“100”), and eventually picked up that value when used in isolation as well.