twain
Plural: twains
Noun
- An archaic term for 'two' or 'a pair'.
- two items of the same kind
- Pair, couple.
Num
- two
Adj
- twofold
Verb
- To part in twain; divide; sunder.
Examples
- Bring me these twain cups of wine and water, and let us drink from the one we feel more befitting of this day.
- But the warm twilight round us twain will never rise again.
- Mark Twain famously used TWAIN, making it a literary, yet playable, Scrabble word.
Origin / Etymology
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.
Scrabble Score: 8
twain: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordtwain: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
twain: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary