another way of saying seventy years. Threescore is a common archaic
synonym for sixty and the
word score means a sum or
group of twenty (things, years, etc.). This possibly comes from the practice of counting herds of sheep or cattle where one would
count from one to twenty and then make a notch or
mark (also called a
score) on a
stick before going on to
count the next twenty. Hence, threescore and ten would be three twenties plus ten, equaling seventy. Threescore years and ten appears in the
Bible in
reference to one's
life span and is considered to be the
average life span of humans.