Aint' score to go, on a stave, brought forth on this continent, a new question conceived

in mathematics and dedicated to the proposition that all numerical adjectives are created equal.

Grammar girl here, I'm a neon-foculty and you can think of me as your friendly guide

to the English language. We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff. This

week we investigate the word score and we answer a fascinating question about English plurals.

In our killer bunny-use episode back in April, we also talked about the use of dozen,

and that got us thinking about the other words based on numerical systems, specifically the use

of score to represent 20. If you were paying attention during history class, you probably remember

that Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address in 1863 begins four score and seven years ago.

But what the heck was four score and seven years ago? Well, according to Ben's guide,

part of the government printing office, quote, a score is another way of saying 20, so Lincoln

was referring to 1776, the year the U.S. declared independence from England, which was 87 years

before 1863, unquote. So where does the word score come from and what's its meaning?

Well, according to the online etymology dictionary, it came from the late old English scorer,

meaning 20, which came from the old Norse score, meaning a mark, notch, or incision, more on that

connection later. The Celts of Central Europe likely introduced the word to the English and French.

One of the meanings of the noun score in the McMillan dictionary is, quote, a group of 20 people

or things, unquote, and it's marked as a literary usage, meaning it's not part of modern

everyday language. We have to go all the way back to 1100 to see the first recorded use of the word

in this sense, according to the OED. But Merriam Webster also sites an example of score as a

numerical adjective as in four score in seven years. The adjectives three score and four score

are considered archaic synonyms for 60 and 80, according to the OED. Interestingly, score is not

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