- umpteen
[umpteen 词源字典]
- umpteen: [20] Umpteen was derived from an earlier umpty. This began life as a signallers’ slang term for a ‘dash’ in morse code (like its companion iddy for ‘dot’, it was purely fanciful in origin). Its similarity to twenty, thirty, etc led to its being used for an ‘indefinitely large number’, and umpteen simply replaced the -ty suffix with -teen.
[umpteen etymology, umpteen origin, 英语词源] - umpteen (adj.)
- 1917, World War I army slang, from umpty + -teen. Related: Umpteenth.