Extending “once, twice, thrice”

Oxford claims that “there is nothing after once, twice, thrice:” fuck that.

It turns out that “once,” “twice” and the like are based on the composition of an ancient numerical adverb with the adverbial genitive suffix -s (see table 1).

Table 1: Numerical adverbs

Ancient adverb		Adverbial genitive		Modern adverb
ene	+	-s	\(\to\)	once
twie	+	-es	\(\to\)	twice
thrie	+	-s	\(\to\)	thrice

With a little philological Schadenfreude, we can continue this series (see table 2).

Table 2: New numerical adverbs

Ancient adverb		Adverbial genitive		Modern adverb
féower	+	-s	\(\to\)	fource
fíf	+	-es	\(\to\)	fives
sexe	+	-es	\(\to\)	sixes
seofon	+	-s	\(\to\)	sevence
ehte	+	-s	\(\to\)	eights
neȝen	+	-s	\(\to\)	nines
tyen	+	-s	\(\to\)	tence

Coming up with novel compounds is the ancient pastime of dabbling philologasters;¹ more difficult is selling them to an intransigent public.