-teen

suffix forming the names of numerals from 13 to 19.
Etymology: OE inflected form of TEN

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a suffix used to form cardinal numerals from 13 to 19.

[ME, OE -tene, comb. form of TEN; c. D -tien, G -zehn]

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teen¹ «teen», noun.

1. Archaic. grief.

2. Archaic. pains; care.

3. Obsolete. revenge.

╂[Old English tēona injury, damage, trouble]

teen ² «teen», adjective, noun.

–adjective.

of or having to do with the teens or teenagers; teenage.

–noun.

= teenager. (Cf. ↑teenager)

-teen,

suffix added to numbers. ten more than _____: »

Seventeen = ten more than seven.

╂[Old English -tēne < tēn ten]

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suffix forming the names of numerals from 13 to 19

fourteen | eighteen

Origin:

Old English, inflected form of ten

* * *

-teen combining element.

(tiːn)

[OE. *-tiacuene, -tyacune, -téne, ME. -tēne = OFris. -téna, -tiacune, OS. -tein (-tian), LG. -tein, Du. -tien, OHG. -zehan (-zeheni), Ger. -zehn.]

An inflected form of ten, added to the simple numerals from three to nine, to form the names of those from thirteen to nineteen.

Hence -teenth (-tiːnθ), forming ordinal numerals from the cardinals in -teen, from thirteenth to nineteenth. In ME. this took the place of earlier -teþe, OE. téoþe: cf. tenth and -th¹.

In early OE., as in the cognate langs., the simple numerals, from four upwards, had an inflected and an uninflected form, the latter commonly used before a n., seofon daᵹas, the former in other positions, e.g. swa ealle seofone. The inflected forms were ns. of the -i declension, with nominative pl. in -e (neut. -u, -o). Subsequently these forms were levelled, the numerals up to twelve retaining the uninflected form, those from thirteen to nineteen the inflected, as teon, ten, fiftēne, fifteen. In ME. the final -e of -tēne, -teene became mute; in mod. Eng. -teen it is no longer written, but the stem vowel remains long.

These compounds had originally the stress on the first element (ˈθɜːtiːn), as in ˈdreizehn, ˈtredecim, ˈtredici, δώδεκα, etc. In modern Eng. this is retained in counting: ‘twelve, ˈthirteen, ˈfourteen, ˈfifteen’, etc., also before hundred, as ‘ˈeighteen ˈhundred and ˈninety’; but before a n. there is a secondary stress on -teen, as ‘ˈeighˌteen ˈmen’. Otherwise the two elements have usually equal stress, ˈthirˈteen, ˈsevenˈteen, ˈeighˈteen, which in the pause may become ˌ—ˈ (not —ˈ), as ‘at the age of ˌthirˈteen’, ‘sweet ˌsevenˈteen’. This stressing may have arisen to distinguish them clearly from the numerals in -ty: ‘not ˌsevenˈteen but ˈseventy’; ‘the ˈforty days have been reduced to ˌfourˈteen’. The stressing of the ordinals in -teenth follows the same lines.