SH-N-Y – ‘mutation, transformation of state’

II. שן, שני or שנים two. The root שן, composed of the sign of relative duration ש, and that of produced being or growth ן, contains all ideas of mutation, of transition, of passing from one state to another, of redundancy. Thus the name of this number in bringing diversity, change and variation, is the opposite in everything from the preceding number, which, as we have seen, arrests division and tends to immutability. The feminine is שתי, שת and שתים. (d’Olivet)