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Examples
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Irishman looked up at the clock which said 3, then at the three of a kind in the nurse's arms, and said: "O'im not superstitious, but thank Hivins thot Oi didn't come home at twilve!"
The New Pun Book Thomas A. Brown
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That will make me twilve, and it's good and glad of it I am for I've to walk to town when my line is reset.
At the Foot of the Rainbow Gene Stratton-Porter 1893
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"I would ha 'swore, sir, there was thirteen, but it seems there was only twilve.
Harper's Young People, March 23, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly Various
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"Sure it's not Bridget O'Flannigan will desart an orphin child; but I make it distinct, an 'ye hear me now, that I'm a respictable woman, not given to takin' a dhrop too much or too little, an 'I won't stan' an 'be insulted, an' me twilve years over from ould Oireland come
The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives Elizabeth Strong Worthington
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"Shure, now, that's a cow fer a respictable middle-aged woman twilve years over from Oireland ter sit down an 'milk when she's not yit ready ter die -- is it, now?
The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives Elizabeth Strong Worthington
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"I want," he said, sourly, "twilve good min, but I don't know that I can git them.
The Grain Ship Morgan Robertson 1888
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"So while the clock was shtrikin’ fur twilve, out come the saint wid the wather-bucket an’ shtarted to the shpring.
Irish Wonders 1878
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"Well, sure, and your honour knows bist," rejoined the first sentinel; "but so hilp me St. Patrick, as I have sirved man and boy in your honour's rigimint this twilve years, not even the fitch of a man has passed me this blissed night.
Wacousta : a tale of the Pontiac conspiracy — Volume 1 John Richardson 1824
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"Well, sure, and your honour knows bist," rejoined the first sentinel; "but so hilp me St. Patrick, as I have sirved man and boy in your honour's rigimint this twilve years, not even the fitch of a man has passed me this blissed night.
Wacousta : a tale of the Pontiac conspiracy (Complete) John Richardson 1824
inkedpolyglot commented on the word twilve
The English language is lacking a word that defines 24 hours, like e.g. the Scandinavian languages have. There's day that can define a 24-hour span, but that can also be used to define the 12 hours of light, as opposed to night.
Twilve is a contraction of the words two/twi and twelve, defining a period of time that is two times twelve hours.
Twilve is both a noun, as in 24 hours, and a verb, meaning "stay up for 24 hours."
This is an irregular intransitive verb:
I twilve every summer.
I twolved last week.
I have twolved many times.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word twilve
Did you make this up, Inked Polyglot? Irregular verbs are only "irregular" in that they follow different rules from the majority. In English, this usually means that there is an alteration in the vowel to indicate the past instead of the addition of the -ed morpheme (and often with the morpheme -en in the past participle. Hence, the sequence twilve, twolve, twilven, modeled perhaps on the verb drive, might be more in keeping with the patterns of English. But I am just a rank amateur when it comes to these things, and I expect (and hope) my colleague Qroqqa might have something to add or correct.
June 1, 2009
qroqqa commented on the word twilve
English irregular verbs scarcely follow any rules at all. There are a couple of patterns (e.g. swim ~ swam ~ swum) that contain as many as ten strong verbs, but most patterns are only for several verbs. There are verbs such as bring ~ brought ~ brought that combine internal change with a weak ending; and others like show ~ showed ~ shown combining weak and strong forms. While twilve doesn't exactly match any real pattern (as far as I can recall), it's close enough to sell ~ sold ~ sold to be plausible. (The more so the more I look at the variant forms of sell historically.)
June 1, 2009