In response to MO, let me quote from "The Words of Mathematics" Surprisingly the source of our word "times"(Indo-European "da") meant to divide. When we say "five times three", we are saying that 15 can be divided into five groups of three. As a verb we properly say "to multiply" although some children say "to times" for obvious reasons. From the same root as "times" comes "tide", which used to mean what "time" now means, as can be seen in the term "eventide" (evening time)