different between twain vs atwain

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twe?n/, [t?w?e?n]
• Rhymes: -e?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English tweyne, tweien, twaine, from Old English tw??en m (“two”), from Proto-West Germanic *twai-, from Proto-Germanic *twai, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh?. Cognate with Saterland Frisian twäin, Low German twene, German zween, Swedish tvenne . More at two.

The word outlasted the breakdown of gender in Middle English and survived as a secondary form of two, then especially in the cases where the numeral follows a noun. Its continuation into modern times was aided by its use in KJV, the Marriage Service, in poetry (where it is commonly used as a rhyme word), and in oral use where it is necessary to be clear that two and not to or too is meant.

Numeral

twain

1. (dated) two
   • 1866, Algernon Swinburne, Before Parting, lines 1-2

     A month or twain to live on honeycomb

     Is pleasant;

   • 1889, Rudyard Kipling, The Ballad of East and West, line 1

     Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.

   • 1900, Ernest Dowson, Amor Profanus, lines 26-28

     […] all too soon we twain shall tread

     The bitter pastures of the dead:

     Estranged, sad spectres of the night.

Derived terms

• in twain
• never the twain shall meet
• twain cloud

Trivia

• Mark Twain: pen name of the author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, which means "mark two (fathoms)" when sounding depth

Adjective

twain (not comparable)

1. (rare) twofold

Noun

twain (plural twains)

1. pair, couple

Etymology 2

From Middle English twaynen, from twayne (“two”, numeral) (see Etymology 1 above).

Verb

twain (third-person singular simple present twains, present participle twaining, simple past and past participle twained)

1. (transitive) To part in twain; divide; sunder.

See also

• twin

Anagrams

• Antwi, Wiant, waint, witan

English

Etymology

From a- +? twain.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??twe?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n

Adverb

atwain (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Into two parts.

   Synonyms: apart, asunder, in twain, in two

   • 1896, William Morris, The Well at the World’s End, London: Longmans, Green, Volume 2, Chapter 11, p. 55,^[1]

     […] a much wider valley into which a great reef of rocks thrust out from the high mountain, so that the northern half of the said vale was nigh cleft atwain by it;

   • 1939, Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn, New York: Grove Press, 1987, Chapter , p. 298,^[2]

     the elevated structure which cuts it [this street] atwain

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:asunder

Anagrams

• T'ai-wan, Taiwan