quatre-vingts - eviltoast
  • Blyfh@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think this actually roots in the problems of conversion to base ten from base twelve. Not sure though, maybe I remembered this wrong.

    • DarthCluck@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Being lazy and not going to look it up. I can’t help it to wonder if it’s also based in Sumerian’s base 60

      • monsieur_jean@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It’s base 20.

        80 in French is 4 x 20. A long time ago, 60 was “trois-vingt”, 3 x 20. We still have a hospital in Paris called “Hopital des Quinze-Vingts”, 15 x 20 because it used to have 300 beds.