twelve

英 [twelv] 美[tw?lv]

CET4TEM4考研CET6高頻詞核心詞匯

復數:?twelves;

twelve 十二

來自古英語 twelf,十二，字面意思即剩下兩個，來自 Proto-Germanic*twa-lif,十二，來自 PIE*dwo,二，詞源同 two,PIE*leip,停留，留下，詞源同 leave.比較 eleven.

twelve: twelve: [OE] Etymologically, twelve probably means ‘two over’ (just as eleven means ‘one over’). It appears to go back to a prehistoric Germanic compound formed from *twa- ‘two’ and *lif- (a relative of English leave), which also produced German zw?lf, Dutch twaalf, Swedish tolf, and Danish tolv. If so, its underlying meaning is ‘two left (over ten)’, hence ‘ten plus two’.
=> leave, two
twelve (adj.): Old English twelf "twelve," literally "two left" (over ten), from Proto-Germanic *twa-lif-, a compound of the root of two + *lif-, root of the verb leave (see eleven). Compare Old Saxon twelif, Old Norse tolf, Old Frisian twelef, Middle Dutch twalef, Dutch twaalf, Old High German zwelif, German zw?lf, Gothic twalif. Outside Germanic, an analogous formation is Lithuanian dvylika, with second element -lika "left over."

1. "Why didn't you appoint Ron twelve months ago?"—"Good question.": “你為什么12個月前不任命羅恩呢？”——“問得好。”

2. Twelve inmates have been killed during a riot at the prison.: 12名犯人在一場監獄暴亂中被殺害。

4. Twelve extremely good-looking, smooth young men have been picked as finalists.: 12名特別漂亮精明的青年男子被選為參加決賽的選手。

5. In most jurisdictions, twelve jurors and two alternates are chosen.: 大多數轄區都會選出12名陪審員和2名候補陪審員。