TWAIN
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twain¹
- /tweɪn/
- [tʰw̥eɪn]
Rhymes with -eɪn
Where it comes from
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁
Proto-Germanic *twai
Proto-West Germanic *twai-der.
Old English twēġen
Middle English tweyne
English twain
PIE word
*dwóh₁
From Middle English tweyne, tweien, twaine, from Old English twēġen m (“two”), from Proto-West Germanic *twai-, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁. Cognate with Saterland Frisian twäin, Low German twene, German zween. More at two.
The word outlasted the breakdown of gender in Middle English and survived as a secondary form of two, then especially in the cases where the numeral follows a noun. Its continuation into modern times was aided by its use in KJV, the Marriage Service, in poetry (where it is commonly used as a rhyme word), and in oral use where it is necessary to be clear that two and not to or too is meant.
number twaine
- two But the warm twilight round us twain will never rise again.
adjective twaine
- twofold
noun twains · twaine
- Pair, couple. The susceptible twain, on the search for adventure, dropped in.
twain²
- /tweɪn/
- [tʰw̥eɪn]
Rhymes with -eɪn
Where it comes from
From Middle English twaynen, from twayne (“two”, numeral) (see Etymology 1 above).
verb twains · twaining · twained · twaine
- To part in twain; divide; sunder.
TWAIN³
Where it comes from
From twain, in reference to a line in Rudyard Kipling's poem The Ballad of East and West: "never the twain shall meet". This was chosen to reflect the difficulty, at the time, of connecting scanners and personal computers.
proper noun
- A standard software protocol and applications programming interface (API) that regulates communication between software applications and imaging devices such as scanners and digital cameras.
Twain⁴
- /tweɪn/
Where it comes from
English surname meaning "divided in two," from the numeral/adjective twain.
proper noun
- A surname.
- A census-designated place in Plumas County, California, United States.
