forty

[fawr-tee]

noun, plural for·ties.

a cardinal number, ten times four.
a symbol for this number, as 40 or XL or XXXX.
a set of this many persons or things.

forties, the numbers, years, degrees, or the like, from 40 through 49, as in referring to numbered streets, indicating the years of a lifetime or of a century, or degrees of temperature: His office is in the West Forties. Her parents are in their forties. The temperature will be in the forties.

adjective

amounting to 40 in number.

Origin of forty

before 950; Middle English fourti, Old English fēowertig (cognate with Old Frisian fiuwertich, Old High German fiorzug, German vierzig). See four, -ty¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for fortier

quadragenarian, quadragesimal

Examples from the Web for fortier

Contemporary Examples of fortier

A bust of Forrest was first placed on a pedestal in the town more than a decade ago, Fortier says.
One Woman’s Fight Against a Tribute to an Early Leader of the Ku Klux Klan
Abigail Pesta
September 26, 2012
Fortier says the local reaction to her campaign has been mixed.
One Woman’s Fight Against a Tribute to an Early Leader of the Ku Klux Klan
Abigail Pesta
September 26, 2012
“I never dreamed that we might, as a town, go backwards,” says Fortier, 39, who works in a local law office.
One Woman’s Fight Against a Tribute to an Early Leader of the Ku Klux Klan
Abigail Pesta
September 26, 2012
Fortier says Friends of Forrest wants to make sure “the Old South rises again.”
One Woman’s Fight Against a Tribute to an Early Leader of the Ku Klux Klan
Abigail Pesta
September 26, 2012
Neither Nichols nor Fortier were in Junction City, Kansas, home of the Dreamland.
Did McVeigh Have Another Accomplice?
Gerald Posner
October 4, 2009

Historical Examples of fortier

It was an embarrassing introduction, but Fortier showed wit—so he claims.
Very Woman
Remy de Gourmont
This Fortier has a mania for offering incomprehensible metaphors.
Very Woman
Remy de Gourmont
Abbé Fortier had the keys taken to his house to be sure the church should not be opened.
The Royal Life Guard
Alexander Dumas (pere)
Safe enough for the time being, said Doctor Fortier, breaking in in quick, staccato tones.
The Woman Gives
Owen Johnson
Very probably, said Dangerfield, with a contemptuous smile, it would please Doctor Fortier to have me make the attempt—to-night?
The Woman Gives
Owen Johnson

British Dictionary definitions for fortier

forty

noun plural -ties

the cardinal number that is the product of ten and fourSee also number (def. 1)
a numeral, 40, XL, etc, representing this number
something representing, represented by, or consisting of 40 units

determiner

1. amounting to fortyforty thieves
2. (as pronoun)there were forty in the herd

Word Origin for forty

Old English fēowertig

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fortier

forty

Old English feowertig, from feower "four" (see four) + tig "group of ten" (see -ty (1)). Cf. Old Saxon fiwartig, Old Frisian fiuwertich, Dutch veertig, Old High German fiorzug, German vierzig, Old Norse fjorir tigir, Gothic fidwor tigjus.

[T]he number 40 must have been used very frequently by Mesha's scribe as a round number. It is probably often used in that way in the Bible where it is remarkably frequent, esp. in reference to periods of days or years. ... How it came to be so used is not quite certain, but it may have originated, partly at any rate, in the idea that 40 years constituted a generation or the period at the end of which a man attains maturity, an idea common, it would seem, to the Greeks, the Israelites, and the Arabs. ["The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia," James Orr, ed., Chicago, 1915]

Forty winks "short sleep" is attested from 1821, In early use associated with, and perhaps coined by, eccentric English lifestyle reformer William Kitchiner M.D. (1775-1827).