that it was sometimes avoided by using numbers such as "seven score". The Assize of Weights and Measures, one of England's statutes of uncertain date from , shows both the short and long hundred in competing use. The hundred of kippers is formed by six score fish and the hundred of hemp canvas and linen cloth is formed by six score ells, but the hundred of pounds, to be used in measuring bulk goods, is five times twenty, and the hundred of fresh herring is five score fish. Within the original Latin text, the numeral c. is used for a value of 120: ("And each such 'hundred' contains six twenties.") The reckoning by long hundreds waned as Arabic numerals which require the uniform base 10, spread throughout Europe during and after the 14th century. In modern times, J. R. R. Tolkien's use of the long hundred system within The Lord of the Rings helped popularize the word eleventy in modern English, primarily as a colloquial word for an indefinitely large number. See also Hundredweight Short hundred Gross References External links Hundred on sizes.com Imperial units Numeral systems English phrases Units of amount