three_
multiply this one thing into _twelve_? It is by no means proper to affirm,
that, "_Every_ four, taken three times, _is_, or _are_, twelve;" for three
instances, or "_times_," of the _figure_ 4, or of the _word four_, are only
three 4's, or three verbal _fours_. And is it not _because_ "_the number_
4" _is plural--is in itself four units_--and because the word _four_, or
the figure 4, conveys explicitly the _idea of this plurality_, that the
multiplication table is true, where it says, "3 times 4 _are_ 12?" It is
not right to say, "Three times one quaternion is twelve;" nor is it quite
unobjectionable to say, with Blanchard "3 _times the number_ 4, _is the
number_ 12." Besides, this pretended interpretation explains nothing. The
syntax of the shorter text, "3 times 4 _is_ 12," is in no way justified or
illustrated by it. Who does not perceive that _the four_ here spoken of
must be four _units_, or four _things_ of some sort; and that no _such_
"four," multiplied by 3, or _till_ "3 _times_," can "convey the idea of
unity," or match a singular verb? Dr. Webster did not so conceive of this
"abstract number," or of "the entire expression" in which it is multiplied;
for he says, "Four times four _amount_ to sixteen."--_American Dict., w.
Time._

OBS. 24.--In fact no phrase of multiplication is of such a nature that it
can, with any plausibility be reckoned a composite subject of the verb.
_Once, twice_, and _thrice_, are adverbs; and each of them may, in general,
be parsed as relating directly to the multiplicand. Their construction, as
well as that of the plural verb, is agreeable to the Latin norm; as, when
Cicero says of somebody, "Si, _bis bina_ quot _essent_, didicisset,"--"If
he had learned how many _twice two are_."--See _Ainsworth's Dict., w.
Binus._ The phrases, "_one time_," for _once_, and "_two times_" for
_twice_, seem puerile expressions: they are not often used by competent
teachers. _Thrice_ is a good word, but more elegant than popular. Above
_twice_, we use the phrases, _three times, four times_, and the like, which
are severally composed of a numeral adjective and the noun _times_. If
these words were united, as some think they ought to be, the compounds
would be _adverbs_ of _time repeated_; as, _threetimes, fourtimes_, &c.,
analogous to _sometimes_. Each word would answer, as each phrase now does,
to the question, _How often?_ These expressions are taken by some as having
a direct adverbial relation