# Score: Unit of time. How long is it?



## JonSidneyB (Nov 2, 2005)

Some one just asked me how long a score is. I think something about 10 score and 3. 

I have no idea how long a score is.


When I google all I seem to get are sports scores and music.


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## MoonRise (Nov 2, 2005)

The answer is ..... 20.

And it's not a unit of time per se, but rather just a way of counting.

So a score of years is 20 years, a score of whatever is also 20.


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## Hookd_On_Photons (Nov 2, 2005)

A "score" is a quantitative term, like "dozen" (12) or "gross" (a dozen dozens, 144).

And as MoonRise stated, a score = twenty.

Fourscore and seven years ago (Lincoln's Gettysburg Address) = 87 years ago.


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## AlphaTea (Nov 2, 2005)

JonSidneyB said:


> I have no idea how long a score is.


If you are lucky it's all night long...


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## nemul (Nov 2, 2005)

AlphaTea said:


> If you are lucky it's all night long...



thats why its called "Score"... most guys only last 20 mins! lmao


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## KC2IXE (Nov 2, 2005)

JonSidneyB said:


> Some one just asked me how long a score is. I think something about 10 score and 3.
> 
> I have no idea how long a score is.
> 
> ...



20 years


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## greenLED (Nov 2, 2005)

Wow, I always thought a "score" of something just meant "lots and lots". I wonder if you could have a bushel-full of chains of scores... :thinking:


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## BB (Nov 2, 2005)

From the Online Etymology:

score 

Late O.E. scoru "twenty," from O.N. skor "mark, tally," also, in Icelandic, "twenty," from P.Gmc. *skura-, from PIE base *(s)ker- "to cut" (cf. O.E. sceran; see shear). The connecting notion is perhaps counting large numbers (of sheep, etc.) with a notch in a stick for each 20. This counting notion is the origin of the modern sense in sports (1742, originally in whist). In O.Fr., "twenty" (vint) or a multiple of it could be used as a base, e.g. vint et doze ("32"), dous vinz et diz ("50"). Meaning "printed piece of music" first recorded 1701, from the practice of connecting related staves by scores of lines. The verb meaning "to cut with incisions or notches" is attested from c.1400; the slang sense "achieve intercourse" first recorded 1960. -Bill


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## Kiessling (Nov 2, 2005)

CPF is great  ... 

A score of minutes is plenty enough for a lot of things IMHO .... :devil:

bernie


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## Sinjz (Nov 2, 2005)

JonSidneyB said:


> Some one just asked me how long a score is. I think something about 10 score and 3.



Was it a kid asking about "Four score and seven years ago..."? 

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm


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## Geologist (Nov 2, 2005)

BB - thanks for the link to the website!


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## BB (Nov 2, 2005)

Geologist,

I really do enjoy looking up words in the Etymology Online website to see the history and approximate date a word came into the English language... It is much more fun than just looking up a dictionary.

-Bill


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## greenlight (Nov 2, 2005)

Counting by twentys must have something to do with counting on one's fingers and toes. Must have been one of the first counting methods.


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## Hookd_On_Photons (Nov 2, 2005)

So if the term came about by counting body parts, why doesn't a score equal twenty-*one*?

Because that would also explain the alternative, slang definition.

For guys, anyway...


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## cratz2 (Nov 3, 2005)

nemul said:


> thats why its called "Score"... most guys only last 20 mins! lmao



20 minuntes? Hell, that's a marathon to some guys.

One guy I used to know said that sex was a race... and I don't think I can type the rest of what he said topside.


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