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Origin documented
“Threescore years and ten”
What it means
Seventy years; a full human lifespan.
Where it comes from
Three twenties and a ten. The phrase gives an ordinary number in the counting system of the day, which is why it sounds archaic now rather than merely specific.
How sure are we?
From Psalm 90 in the King James Bible of 1611, though the score-based construction was ordinary English long before and after. Modern translations simply say seventy, which loses the cadence entirely.