twin
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- twynne (obsolete)
Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]PIE word |
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*dwóh₁ |
From Middle English twinne, twynne, from Old English ġetwin, ġetwinn (“twin, multiple”, noun) and twinn (“twin, two-fold, double, two by two”, adjective), from Proto-Germanic *twinjaz, *twinahz (“two each”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwino- (“twin”), from *dwóh₁ (“two”). Cognate with Scots twyn (“twin”), Dutch tweeling (“twin”), German Zwilling (“twin”), Danish tvilling (“twin”), Swedish tvilling (“twin”), Faroese tvinnur (“a double set”), Icelandic tvenna (“duo, pair”), Lithuanian dvynys (“twin”), Russian двойня (dvojnja, “twin”).
Noun
[edit]twin (plural twins)
- Either of two people (or, less commonly, animals) who shared the same uterus at the same time; one who was born at the same birth as a sibling.
- Either of two similar or closely related objects, entities etc.
- A room in a hotel, guesthouse, etc. with two beds; a twin room.
- (US) A twin size mattress or a bed designed for such a mattress.
- (aviation) A two-engine aircraft.
- (crystallography) A twin crystal.
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]- Big Jim and the twins
- Catholic twin
- Catholic twins
- conjoined twin
- digital twin
- evil twin
- identical twin
- Irish twin
- mirror-image twin
- mirror twin
- monozygotic twin
- physical twin
- quasi-twin
- Siamese twin
- stuck twin syndrome
- time twin
- twin block appliance
- twin-born
- twin-cam
- twincest
- Twin Cities
- twin city
- twin-engined
- Twin Falls
- twin flame
- twinjet
- Twin Lakes
- twin-masted
- twin oligohydramnios-polyhydramnios sequence
- twin paradox
- twin prime pair
- twin ship
- twin-ship
- twin speech
- twin-stick
- twin talk
- twin tip
- twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome
- Twin Towers
- twin-track
- twin tub
- vanishing twin
- vanishing twin syndrome
Translations
[edit]
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See also
[edit]- twyndyllyng
- (hotel room): single, double
- twain
Verb
[edit]twin (third-person singular simple present twins, present participle twinning, simple past and past participle twinned)
- (transitive, obsolete outside Scotland) To separate, divide.
- (intransitive, obsolete outside Scotland) To split, part; to go away, depart.
- (usually in the passive) To join, unite; to form links between (now especially of two places in different countries); to pair with.
- Reading, the English town, is twinned with Clonmel in Ireland.
- Coventry twinned with Dresden as an act of peace and reconciliation, both cities having been heavily bombed during the war.
- 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part 1”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
- Still we moved / Together, twinned, as horse's ear and eye.
- 2006, Aruna D'Souza, Tom McDonough, Tom Mc Donough, The Invisible Flâneuse?: Gender, Public Space, and Visual Culture in Nineteenth-century Paris, Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 60:
- Yet, Manet heightens its effect by performing the clever ocular trick of practically twinning her with her pictorial counterpart, Madame Lejosne.
- (intransitive) To give birth to twins.
- 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd:
- “I’ve run to tell ye,” said the junior shepherd, supporting his exhausted youthful frame against the doorpost, “that you must come directly. Two more ewes have twinned — that’s what’s the matter, Shepherd Oak.”
- 1992, George Christopher Williams, Natural Selection: Domains, Levels, and Challenges, Oxford University Press on Demand, →ISBN, page 79:
- Twinning today is abnormal in all higher primates, and possibly adaptive only in the one species with an obstetrical technology that permits a high rate of survival of twins.
- (transitive) To be, or be like, a twin to (someone else); to match in some way.
- 2009, Kathryn Bond Stockton, The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in the Twentieth Century, Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 111:
- The invert child and her innocent child are together lost children, twinning each other despite their distinctions.
- 2017, Christina Crosby, A Body, Undone: Living On After Great Pain, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 111:
- I was awake to the horror of our twinning each other in paralysis, and feared that we would soon talk only about the daily, intimate care serious paralysis demands […]
- (intransitive) To be, or be like, a pair of twins (for example, to dress identically); to be paired or suited.
- 2018, Vivian Blue, Your Heart Is Mine: A Criminal Romance, Sullivan Group Publishing, →ISBN:
- “I see you got us twinning today.” Byrd kissed Lay quickly. “I wanted you to dress like me today,” he admitted.
- 2019, Lisa Mullarkey, Paisley, ABDO, →ISBN, page 17:
- “We're totally twinning today!” said Zoey. “You sure are,” said Chef Piper. “I whipped up a special dessert for tonight.”
See also
[edit]Etymology 2
[edit]From Middle English *twin, *twyn, from Old English twin, twinn (“twin; double”, adjective), from Proto-Germanic *twīhnaz (“occurring in a pair; twofold; double”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ (“two”). Cognate with Icelandic tvennur (“double”), Gothic 𐍄𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌽𐌰𐌹 (tweihnai, “two each”).
Adjective
[edit]twin (not comparable)
- Double; dual; occurring as a matching pair.
- twin beds, twin socks
- Forming a pair of twins.
- the twin boys
Synonyms
[edit]- (forming a matched pair): twofold; see also Thesaurus:dual
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
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Further reading
[edit]- “twin”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “twin”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “twin”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Noun
[edit]twin
- Alternative form of twyn
Old English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]twin
- Alternative form of twinn
Declension
[edit]- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɪn
- Rhymes:English/ɪn/1 syllable
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *dwóh₁
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- American English
- en:Aviation
- en:Crystallography
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Scottish English
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- en:People
- en:Two
- en:Family
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English lemmas
- Old English adjectives