عِشْرُونَ

Twenty; twice ten: (K:) applied alike to a masculine and a feminine: (Msb:) you say عِشْرُونَ رَجُلًا [Twenty men], and عِشْرُونَ امْرَأَةً [Twenty women: the noun following it being in the accusative case as a specificative]: (TA:) it is decl. with و and ى [like a plural formed by the addition of و and ن]; (Msb;) and when you prefix it to another noun, making it to govern the latter in the gen. case, you drop the ن, (S, Msb,) and say, عِشْرُو زَيْدٍ [The twenty of Zeyd], (Msb,) and عِشْرُوكَ [Thy twenty], (S, O, Msb,) and عِشُرِىّ [My twenty], changing the و into ى [in this last case], because of the letter following it, and these incorporating: (S, O:) so says Ks; but most disallow this mode of prefixing in the case of a decimal number [of this kind], (Msb.) [It signifies also Twentieth.] It is not a plural of عَشَرَةٌ, (so in a copy of the S and in the O and in the TA.) or عَشْرٌ, (so in another copy of the S,) [or perhaps the right reading is عِشْرٌ, as may be inferred from what will be presently added: but first it should be observed that if it were plural of عَشَرَةٌ, or of عَشْرٌ, it would signify at least three times ten: some hold it to be a plural of عِشْرٌ, saying, (TA.) as عِشْرٌ signifies camels' coming to water on the ninth day, they do not say عِشْرَانِ [for twenty], but they say عِشْرُونَ, (in the K, لَمْ يُقَلْ عِشْرَيْنِ وَقَالُوا عِشْرِينَ: but the correct reading seems to be لَمْ يَقُولُوا: TA: [in the CK it is more incorrect, لم يقل عِشْرِينَ وقالوا عِشْرَيْنِ:]) making eighteen days to be عِشْرَانِ, and the nineteenth and twentieth a portion of the third عِشْر; and so, [regarding the portion as a whole,] forming the plural عِشْرُونَ; (K, * TA;) agreeably with a well-known license, which allows the calling two and a part of the third a pl: (TA:) this is the opinion of Kh and IDrd and some others: but J and most of the lexicologists hold that عِشْرُونَ is not a plural of عَشَرَةٌ nor of عِشْرٌ nor of any other word, and their opinion I hold to be correct, applying as it does to the other similar nouns of number. (MF.)