[sam_goody]

I've read that societies that used such a system for counting used base 12 (instead of base 10), and had names for one digit representations of numbers 10 and 11.

Such as system allows for quarters and thirds to be whole numbers, and is much more powerful once you get used to it.

Many of our numbers come from merges between the two base systems (12 hour days, 12 inch foot, etc.)

To clarify, I was taught that the reason we use base 10 is that we have ten fingers. In societies that used a twelve jont counting from a young age, they use base 12. I suspect that the reason that most people find subtraction harder than addition is that they have been doing addition from a younger age.

[sharpercoder]

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve... they're unique names. Then comes thirten, fourten.

Ten, eleven and twelve are unique names and probably have their entymology derived from a base-12 numbering system once primarily used in Anglo-speaking countries.

[Tistron]

It's simple enough to Google "etymology eleven" to see that it is a base 10 word.

Modern proponents of a dozenal system seem to prefer the words "el" and "doz" for eleven and twelve. I would totally be in for changing, but realistically it'll never happen.

Numberphile on the dozenal system: https://youtu.be/U6xJfP7-HCc

[occamrazor]

“Twelve” is suspiciously similar to “two” however, which makes me wonder about its origin.