fifty

Pluralfifties

1. 1
   numeral

   The cardinal number that comes after forty-nine and before fifty-one.

   The stadium held just over fifty thousand spectators.

   He turned fifty last spring and celebrated with old friends.

   Note

   Behind the number is a plain sum: Old English fīftiġ, from Proto-Germanic *fimf tigiwiz, "five tens," which is why it still reads as five plus -ty. The first element goes back to the Indo-European word for five, *pénkʷe. As a cardinal it stands directly before a larger unit with no joining word, as in fifty thousand followers. It becomes a countable noun with the plural fifties in the banknote meaning.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A banknote or coin with a value of fifty units of currency.

   She tipped the valet with a crisp fifty.

   The cash drawer was stuffed with fifties by closing time.

   Note

   Here the currency drops out once context supplies it. In Richard Marsh's The Beetle (1897), a driver promised fifty pounds says he will do his best to earn "that fifty." In the same way, someone handing over cash can ask whether fifties are OK without naming dollars or pounds. As a countable noun it takes an article and a plural: a fifty, two fifties.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   In cricket, a batsman's score of at least fifty runs but fewer than one hundred.

   The opener brought up his fifty with a crisp boundary.

   She has three fifties to her name this season.

   Similarhalf-century

   Note

   Cricket treats a fifty as a milestone rather than an exact figure. Any individual innings from fifty up to ninety-nine runs qualifies, so a batsman out for ninety-eight has still made one. Reaching one hundred makes it a century, a separate and larger mark. Because it names an achievement, it is tallied like one: a player's fifties for the season.

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