four-and-twenty

• four and twenty

four-and-twenty

1. (archaic) Twenty-four. (24)
   • 1609, The Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Lavrence Kellam, […], →OCLC, 1 Paralipomenon 27:2, page 863:

     Ouer the firſt companie the firſt month Ieſboam was chiefe the ſonne of Zabdiel, and vnder him foure and twentie thouſand.

   • 1744, Sing a Song of Sixpence, in Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book (earliest known written version)

     Sing a Song of Sixpence, / A bag full of Rye, / Four and twenty Naughty Boys,/ Baked in a Pye.

   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter IV, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 56:

     "He was four-and-twenty the 8th of last June,[...]"

   • 2005 June 20, “My Party This Way | Faustus”, in The Guardian‎:

     Jamba has removed from Marlowe's Doctor Faustus all but the barest of essentials - even half its title, leaving us with an 80-minute hurtle through Faustus's four and twenty borrowed years on earth.