There's four and twenty million doors

[shhop319]

Hi,

If someone says "There's four and twenty million doors", then it means..420 million? Actually it's a lyric from the song "the masterplan" from Oasis and I am confused...

 

[SoothingDave]

First, no one would ever say this in real life.

But "four and twenty" is 24. So "four and twenty million" would be 24 million.

You have to know that there is an old nursery rhyme about "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie."

This is not a normal way to say "twenty-four" now, if it ever was in the past.

Also note that this may be a reference to "4:20" which is a code for smoking marijuana. Supposedly from a group of kids who used to indulge every day after school at this time.

 

[Raymott]

It might also help to know that, at least in German, 24 is still 'vier-und-zwanzig' (four and twenty). This probably applies to some other northern European languages where many of our fairy tales and nursery rhymes come from. There was possibly also a more direct effect on the language.
"Sing a song of sixpence" which contains the line "four and twenty blackbirds" is described as an English nursery rhyme. This traces it to at least 1744:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_a_Song_of_Sixpence