quarante

Quarante is a French word that, when used as an adjective, describes something or someone as constituting one-fortieth of a unit, such as a quarante voitures, meaning 40 automobiles. As a noun, quarante refers to the number 40 in numerical contexts.

In most other languages, the word for 40 is derived from Latin, resulting in words like "forty" in English. However, the unique development of French numerals has led to the distinct word "quarante," as seen in several other instances where a similar qu- prefix is utilized in conjunction with other integers.

For instance, quarts means four fifths, quadrille means four times four, quintuple means five times or fivefold, and further additions are expressible similarly. Generally, this construction can be utilized in other numbers also, like quinze for fifteen and so on for additional numbers.

Another example of using quarante in place of forty is seen in military context, where a quarante riding, troop, company or similar unit provides a common mass for group numbers to be manageable at a level with 40 troops.