FORTY  , the

cardinal number equal to four tens . The word is derived from the 0 . Eng. feowertig, a combination of fakeer, four, and tig, an old form of " ten," used as a suffix, cf . Icel. tiu, Dan. ti, ten, and Ger. vierzig, forty . The name " The Forty " has been given to various bodies composed of that number of members, particularly to a judicial body in ancient Athens, who tried small cases in the rural districts, and to a court of criminal jurisdiction and two civil appeal courts in the Venetian republic . The French Academy (see ACADEMIES) has also been known as " The Forty " or " The Forty Immortals." The period just before the repeal of the corn laws in the United Kingdom is frequently alluded to, particularly by the free trade school, as the " hungry forties "; and the " roaring forties " is a sailor's name for the' stormy region between the 4oth and 50th latitudes N. and S., but more particularly applied to the portion of the north Atlantic lying between those latitudes .