four score
Lincoln's way of counting
Four score means eighty—a score being twenty.
The phrase is archaic and almost always echoes Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation.
Outside deliberate allusion to Lincoln, the expression sounds affected or humorous.
- Abraham LincolnCivil War era leader
- LincolnMidwestern state capital
- GettysburgPennsylvania battle site
- yearsTwelve-month spans
- addressSpeak to formally
speech · civil war · ago · founding fathers · twenty · biblical · solemn · historic · fathers · brought · forth · nation · conceived · liberty · dedicated · proposition · equal · cemetery