Multiples of ten in Russian, for the most part, have a common suffix, sort of like “-ty” in English (i.e. twenty, thirty, etc.) “Twenty” and “thirty” in Russian are “двадцать” and “тридцать” (pronounced “dvadtsat” and “treedtsat,” basically).

Note that they both end in “-цать.” “Forty” is different, though. (The words for “fifty” through “eighty” have a different suffix in common. “Ninety” is different, too, but that’s for another day.) I find this sort of thing interesting, and it’s my blog, so nyah.

The word for “forty” in Russian is “сорок” (pronounced “sorok.”) This threw us for a loop in Russian class back in college, and the professor’s explanation was interesting. I thought I’d share it today. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but Google helped me find the same basic linguistic theory.

A post by Joseph F. Foster, a University of Cincinnati anthropologist, at the website The Linguist List cites A.G. Preobrazhensky’s “Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language,” which suggests that the Russian word for forty “is related to this Russian form: sorochka = ‘shirt, blouse. shift (sack dress)’.” Foster explains:

The relationship may come from the Russian frontier practice of bundling pelts, or furs, and from it taking about 40 pelts to make a full fur coat.

If you use the Russian word for “forty,” does that mean you are supporting the fur industry?

A post at Yahoo! Answers adds:

This word used to be a noun, “сорокъ,” which meant “sack.” The reason it became a number is that sable furs used to be sold by the sack, and each sack held forty furs. (Forty was the number of furs needed to sew a full-length fur coat.)

There seems to be something about the number 40, though, as Foster goes on to say:

There is or maybe something more generaly in a sense “exceptional” about 40, though. In the Near East, ’40’ is a generalized large number. The Turkish tale “KyrK Hara:milar” “The [Group of] 40 Thieves” is of course the Turkish version of “Ali Baba and the 40 thieves” from 1001 Nights. It rained in Genesis 40 days and 40 nights, the Children of Israel were in the Land of Egypt 400 years and wandered 40 Years in the Wilderness. Jesus fasted in the Wilderness 40 days. And so on.

Now, the so what is that this generalized use of 40 shows up in Russian too, here and there. There, for instance, is a ‘centipede’ and here is the Russian word ?corokonoga or something of that ilk. “40 footer”. [The popular name in the Arkansas is “thousandlegger”. Exactly how many feet a centipede has I dont know, but clearly these are generalized large numbers. So ‘sorok’ seems very likely to be a deveopment of a cardinal (and ordinal) numeral from a noun that originally was an ordinary noun meaning something on the order of ‘bundle’.

Sorry, Schoolhouse Rock, but I think forty might be the magic number.

Photo credit: By Kuerschner (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons