English Explanatory Dictionary

four score and seven years ago

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adv
  1. Used (sometimes sarcastically) to indicate that a past event being mentioned is particularly important: a long time ago; many years ago.

Pronunciation

/ˈfɔː skɔː‿ɹən ˌsɛvən jɪəz əˌɡəʊ/ /ˈfɔɹ skɔɹ ən ˌsɛvən jɪɹz əˌɡoʊ/ En-au-four score and seven years ago.ogg

Word forms

four score and seven years ago fourscore and seven years ago four score seven years ago

Etymology

Literally, “87 years ago” (score sense: “group of 20”) the beginning of the Gettysburg Address made on November 19, 1863, by United States President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The widespread familiarity of Lincoln’s address, the unusual and poetic wording, and its status as the first words of the speech have caused the phrase to enter the public consciousness.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on F Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary