topics: |  math

Thousands of words are obviously associated with numbers, for example,

	a monologue is a speech by 1 person;
	a bicycle has 2 wheels;
	a tripod is a stool with 3 legs;
	a quadruped is an animal with 4 legs;
	a pentathlon consists of 5 athletic events;
	a sextet is a piece for 6 musicians;
	a heptagon is a 7-comered figure;
	an octopus has 8 "feet";
	a nonagenarian has lived for 9 decades;
	and decimal means counting in lOs;
but in many other cases the connections, once just as vivid,

etymology of "number": from Indo-European root meaning "share" or "portion"
	and seems to have been originally associated  with the division of
	land_ "Nimble" refers to one who is quick to take his share; your
	"nemesis" was originally your portion of Fate.  German: nehmen, to take,
	[Meaning "symbol or figure of arithmatic value" is from c.1391. ]

number words often show strange combinations.  e.g. 18 in Welsh: is deunaw;
= twice 9 (naw).  50 is half-hundred.