From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
five-and-twenty
- (archaic) Twenty-five.
1879, Henry James, chapter III, in Confidence, London: Chatto & Windus:Having brought it to a close, he took his way to the Kursaal. The great German watering-place is one of the prettiest nooks in Europe, and of a summer evening in the gaming days, five-and-twenty years ago, it was one of the most brilliant scenes.
- Five-and-twenty is used by some older speakers instead of twenty-five when referring to that many minutes before or after the hour, as in five-and-twenty past six.
