quatrevingt

Quatrevingt is the French numeral representing the number 80. In standard French, eighty is written quatre-vingts when it stands alone, and the form quatre-vingt- is used as a stem when forming compound numbers (for example, quatre-vingt-un for 81, quatre-vingt-dix for 90, or quatre-vingt-cinq for 85). The final s is dropped in compounds.

Etymology and system: The term comes from a vigesimal counting tradition, literally four twenties (quatre × vingt). This reflects historical counting practices. In contemporary French, the base-20 structure is visible only in the word for eighty; subsequent numbers to the right of eighty are formed in a decimal-like way but use the vingt as a combining form in the twenty-two to ninety range.

Regional variation: While quatre-vingts is standard in mainstream French, some regional varieties historically used septante for seventy and octante/huitante for eighty, particularly in certain Belgian and Swiss dialects. Today, standard French typically uses quatre-vingts, with regional variants appearing mainly in informal speech or historical texts.

Usage notes: Quatre-vingts is spelled with an s when eighty stands alone (as in Il a quatre-vingts ans, he is eighty years old). When followed by another number or a noun, the s is not used, and the compound is written with a hyphen (quatre-vingt-un, quatre-vingt-dix, etc.). The word is primarily a numeric term and appears in contexts such as dates, ages, prices, and counts.

See also: French numerals; vigesimal counting in the French language; regional French number variants.