þrtig

þrtig is a historical form associated with the cardinal number thirty in early Germanic languages, most commonly linked to Old English. In the standard Old English lexicon the numeral is written as þrītig, a compound of three and ten that yields the modern English thirty. The development from Proto-Germanic *þrītugaz reflects the common Germanic pattern of forming “three tens” for the value of thirty.

Attestations of the form þrītig appear in medieval manuscripts and glossaries, where it is part of the same numeral system as other numbers such as fiftig (fifty) and tīg (ten). The non-diacritic spelling þrtig, which omits the long i (ī) and the thorn symbol in favor of a simplified transcription, is sometimes encountered in linguistic references, teaching materials, or digitized editions that standardize Old English without diacritics. In actual Old English pronunciation, the word would have represented a consonant and vowel sequence consistent with the era’s phonology.

In a broader context, forms of the same number appear across the Germanic languages. Old Norse and Icelandic often render the concept as þrítíu or similar variants, Dutch dertig, and German dreißig, all tracing back to the same Proto-Germanic root meaning “three tens.” The relationship among these forms highlights the shared numeric formation in the Germanic family.

See also: thirty, Old English language, Proto-Germanic numerals, Germanic etymology.