four

Meaning

Noun

  • The digit or figure 4; an occurrence thereof.
  • Anything measuring four units, as length.
  • A person who is four years old.
  • An event in which the batsmen run four times between the wickets or, more often, a batsman hits a ball which bounces on the ground before passing over a boundary, resulting in an award of 4 runs for the batting team. If the ball does not bounce before passing over the boundary, a six is awarded instead.
  • A power forward.
  • Four-man sweep racing shell, with or without a coxswain.
  • A four-pennyworth of spirits.

Origin

  • From Middle English four, from Old English fēower, from Proto-West Germanic *feuwar, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from previous pre-Grimm *petwṓr, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr, the neuter form of *kʷetwóres. .
  • Cognates include West Frisian fjouwer, Dutch and German vier, Norwegian Bokmål and Danish fire, Swedish fyra, Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌳𐍅𐍉𐍂 and, more distantly, Latin quattuor (whence Spanish cuatro, French quatre), Ancient Greek τέσσαρες, Irish ceathair, Armenian չորս, Lithuanian keturi, Albanian katër, Sanskrit चतुर्.

Modern English dictionary

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