Antique Memes Roadshow

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Giving you the backstory and appraisals of vintage memes!

Submissions should be vintage memes or commentary about vintage memes. Commenters are advised to appraise the internet value and provenance meme antiquities.

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oneteen (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

It’s a holdover from an older base-12 counting system, one of many, many relics of the fact that English is an ever evolving language.

Edit: it’s not a holdover from a different base, but a different way of counting. See comment below for details.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

No, it supposedly derives from an old word for a leftover. Eleven is one left over after ten; twelve is two left over after ten. https://www.oed.com/dictionary/eleven_adj?tab=etymology#5639642