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| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
twain
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| © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
twain
 Audio Help (twān) Pronunciation Key
n. , adj. & pron. Two. [Middle English tweien, twaine, from Old English twēgen; see dwo- in Indo-European roots.] |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
| Twain
Audio Help (twān) Pronunciation Key
See Samuel Langhorne Clemens. |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
twain
| Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper |
| twain | |
noun | |
| two items of the same kind |
| WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. |
TWAIN graphics, standard
An image capture API for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems that enables the user to control a scanner or digital camera from image processing software.
TWAIN was first released on 1992-02-29 and is currently ratified at version 2.0 as of 2005-11-28. It is maintained by the TWAIN Working Group.
Kevin Bier, chairman-emeritus of the TWAIN Working Group and the one of the original co-author/editors of TWAIN 1.0, chose the name TWAIN after reading letters by Mark Twain. It was unofficially considered to mean "toolkit without an important name."
The word "twain" is an archaic form meaning "two". It appears in Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West" - "...and never the twain shall meet...", reflecting the difficulty, at the time, of connecting scanners and personal computers. It was up-cased to TWAIN to make it more distinctive. This led people to believe it was an acronym, and then to a contest to come up with an expansion. None were selected, but the entry "Technology Without An Interesting Name" continues to haunt the standard.
The TWAIN Working Group.
(2000-02-25)
| The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe |
Twain Harte, CA (CDP, FIPS 80966) Location: 38.04047 N, 120.23265 W
Population (1990): 2170 (1792 housing units)
Area: 9.5 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 95383
Twain, CA Zip code(s): 95984
| U.S. Gazetteer, U.S. Census Bureau |
Twain
Be*tween"\, prep. [OE. bytwene, bitweonen, AS. betwe['o]nan, betwe['o]num; prefix be- by + a form fr. AS. tw[=a] two, akin to Goth. tweihnai two apiece. See Twain, and cf. Atween, Betwixt.]1. In the space which separates; betwixt; as, New York is between Boston and Philadelphia. 2. Used in expressing motion from one body or place to another; from one to another of two. If things should go so between them. --Bacon. 3. Belonging in common to two; shared by both. Castor and Pollux with only one soul between them. --Locke. 4. Belonging to, or participated in by, two, and involving reciprocal action or affecting their mutual relation; as, opposition between science and religion. An intestine struggle, open or secret, between authority and liberty. --Hume. 5. With relation to two, as involved in an act or attribute of which another is the agent or subject; as, to judge between or to choose between courses; to distinguish between you and me; to mediate between nations. 6. In intermediate relation to, in respect to time, quantity, or degree; as, between nine and ten o'clock. Between decks, the space, or in the space, between the decks of a vessel. Between ourselves, Between you and me, Between themselves, in confidence; with the understanding that the matter is not to be communicated to others. Syn: Between, Among. Usage: Between etymologically indicates only two; as, a quarrel between two men or two nations; to be between two fires, etc. It is however extended to more than two in expressing a certain relation. I . . . hope that between public business, improving studies, and domestic pleasures, neither melancholy nor caprice will find any place for entrance. --Johnson. Among implies a mass or collection of things or persons, and always supposes more than two; as, the prize money was equally divided among the ship's crew.| Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
TWAIN
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