It is the beginning of November. It is November the 3rd - it can never be November the thrice.
What is that word thrice? It means three times as much or as many, triply, greatly, highly. It can never be the Thrice of November. And that's even if we get the huge snowstorm that is three times bigger than the great Snowvember storm of 2014. But that is later in November.
So while we still say once and twice, we no longer say thrice. There are many other things to notice about three. Look at this handy chart in Wikipedia:
Cardinal: three Ordinal: third Latinate ordinal: tertiary Adverbial: three times, thrice Multiplier: threefold Latinate multiplier: triple Distributive: triply Collective: trio, threesome Multiuse collective: triplet Greek or Latinate collective: triad Greek collective prefix: tri- Latinate collective prefix: tri- Fractional: third Latinate fractional prefix: trient- Elemental: thrin, triplet Greek prefix: trito- Number of musicians: trio, triplet Number of years: triennium
And on to jokes with the number 3.Mostly they are bad jokes or not really jokes. Here's one that includes the number 3 or maybe the number 3 is the punchline.
Conjecture: All odd numbers are prime.
Mathematician's Proof: 3 is prime. 5 is prime. 7 is prime. By induction, all odd numbers are prime.
Physicist's Proof: 3 is prime. 5 is prime. 7 is prime. 9 is experimental error. 11 is prime. 13 is prime...
Engineer's Proof: 3 is prime. 5 is prime. 7 is prime. 9 is prime. 11 is prime. 13 is prime ...
Computer Scientists's Proof: 3 is prime. 3 is prime. 3 is prime. 3 is prime...
What comes after once, twice, thrice? Nothing. These three are the only words of their type and no further terms in the series have ever existed.
There are many researchers out there and the anitmoon.com forum had a post on this, claiming there is a series from Wiktionary. It turned out to be unverifiable. However, the entertainment is excellent:
... Wiktionary's list of protologisms as terms coming after "once" for "one time", "twice" for "two times" and "thrice" for "three times".
quarce: Four times quince: Five times sess: Six times sepce: Seven times okce: Eight times nince: Nine times dekce: Ten times elfce: Eleven times duss: Twelve times baikce: Thirteen times"
Thrice has fallen out of favour and common usage. Its usage has fallen steadily since 1810, so we can conclude it is no longer in common usage. I found a reference to this in another response in an English language forum. It claims that the last straw for the expression thrice occurred in It Happened on the Way to the Forum. The blame is put Zero Mostel with his witty line "He raped Thrace thrice".
A comeback may be on the way: when William and Kate had their third baby, William was buckling his new son's car seat into the car. He had a short interaction with the adoring media and crowd outside of the hospital, where he held up three fingers and joked, "Thrice the worry now!"
There are at least 2 thrice jokes:
Jarul goes to church and he decided to get baptized. The pastor dipped him thrice in the baptizimal pool and said, "You are baptized in the name of the father, and of the son and of the holy spirit. From now on you are no longer to be called Jarul but Joseph, and you should never drink beer again." Jarul went home and took a cold pint of beer, recalling what the pastor said he headed for the kitchen and dipped the pint of beer in a bowl of water thrice saying from now on you are nolonger to be called Budweiser but orange juice.
And another:
Q. What happens when a lion roars thrice? A. Tom & Jerry cartoon begins.
I drove to Acton yesterday to see Lost Horizons - a garden nursery with beautiful display gardens It was definitely worth the drive to Acton.
