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Glite Dictionary
fourscore year

fourscore year

9.9
Eighty years in old language
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : ochenta años
  • "The village had thrived for fourscore years, passing down traditions over time."

Examples

  • "After fourscore years, they celebrated a remarkable anniversary of their foundation."

  • "And though men be so strong "That they come to fourscore years,

    The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

  • I've been trying all day to draw some... profound conclusion about living fourscore years.

    On Golden Pond (1981)

  • "He lived for fourscore years, sharing wisdom with generations."

Surface Forms

fourscore year singular
fourscore years plural

Morphology

fourscore + year

The meaning 'eighty years' is directly and compositionally derived from 'fourscore' (eighty) + 'year' (year), so a learner who knows both constituents can immediately combine them. Although 'fourscore' is archaic, the numeral + time-unit pattern is transparent and cross-linguistically regular, making the phrase understandable to a B1 learner familiar with the parts.

Etymology

The phrase fourscore year comes from an old way of counting: a score was 'twenty'. So four score is four times twenty years, which is 'eighty years', and that's why the phrase means 'eighty years'.