four-and-twenty

four-and-twenty

1. (archaic) Twenty-four. (24)
   • Douay-Rheims Bible. 1 Chronicals Ch.27 v.2

     Over the first company the first month Jesboam, the son of Zabdiel was chief, and under him were four and twenty thousand.

   • 1744, Sing a Song of Sixpence, in Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book (earliest known written version)

     Sing a Song of Sixpence, / A bag full of Rye, / Four and twenty Naughty Boys,/ Baked in a Pye.

   • Monday June 20, 2005, The Guardian newspaper

     Jamba has removed from Marlowe's Doctor Faustus all but the barest of essentials - even half its title, leaving us with an 80-minute hurtle through Faustus's four and twenty borrowed years on earth.

     "He was four-and-twenty on the 8th of last June." - Emma, by Jane Austen