Theme: the numeral and the pronoun

A The derivational suffix -ish
1 A: Phone later on ah, Ron, later, later on.
B: About elevenish. (CONV)
2 And say he's round about the fortyish - age. (coNvf)
3 A plump, fiftyish woman, she was already efficiently turned out in her white uniform, (FICT)
4 I suppose they'll come about three and we must send for them sixish as usual? (FICT)
The suffix -ish in such examples means 'approximately'.
B Combinations with odd
The expression number + odd refers to a relatively small amount over that specified; e.g. 300 odd means 'slightly over 300':
A hundred and fifty odd meals a day. (CONV)
Is it only a thirty odd hour week? (CONV)
You could have gotten a hundred and some odd dollars for it. (Ficrf)
I drove the twenty-odd miles hack to town and ate lunch, (FICT)
We've got 60-odd officers going out tonight, (NEWS)
Approximating adverbs
Approximating adverbs include about, around, some, and approximately, roughly, and circa.
Every time I got to them they had about twenty odd teachers there. (coNvf)
I spent about two hours in the bar. (Ficrf)
The radial shields are about 1.5-2 times as long as broad. (ACAD|)
Approximately 60% of the community are of Polish and Russian ancestry,
and approximately 40% are blacks who were born and raised in this midwestern community, (ACAD)
D. Coordination tags
The tag (and) something means 'a little more than the number stated', while or something/or so mean 'a little more or a little less'.
We've paid four thousand seven hundred and something, (CONVJ)
Oh I think they were hundred and something each maybe more, (CONV)
J think they paid him out - thirty thousand or something like that, (CONV)
A: How many were in?
B: Four hundred or so. (CONV)
In his opinion, only 2,000 or so, or about 30 percent, of the 6,800 "modern standard characters" needed to write contemporary Chinese are free words. (ACADJ)
That must have been in 1964 or so whatever the last year was for the New
York World's Fair, (FICT)
Some, including Portland, Oregon, charge $1 or so to recycle a tree, (NEWS)
2.7.7.4 Approximating numeral expressions
Overall, with the exception of some forms (circa, approximately, around, roughly, some, or so), approximating expressions are found much more often in conversation than in the other registers. The frequency of approximating expressions is not proportional to the number of numerals (4.4.5.1). If it were, we would have expected fewer approximating expressions in conversation than in academic prose and news reportage.
Occurrences with -ish are infrequent and almost exclusively restricted to conversation and fiction. Coordination of phrases . Those containing odd are moderately common in conversation (over 40 per million words), but they also occur occasionally in the written registers (especially in direct speech).
About is the most common approximating adverb, in all registers; approximately is used primarily in academic prose.
While the tag and something is relatively rare and virtually restricted to conversation, expressions with or so are more common and are found in all registers.
Approximating expressions fit in with the communicative purposes of conversation, where complete explicitness may not be necessary, and some degree of vagueness may actually be desirable. See also Chapter 14. We even see such expressions cluster together:
Fish is normally about one twenty odd. (CONVI)
Your total was - about four thir- about four fifty roughly, (CONV)
A: How much did that cost you to do that?
B: About six pound or something, (CONV)
Numerals in diling telephone numbers, in sports and games, dates, weather forecasts, odd numbers, fractions, see Communicative Grammar, etc.