ninety

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English nīntī, also nineti and nigenti,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English nigontig,^{[3][5][6][7][8]} which is short for the more common hundnigontig,^[5][4][8] from Proto-Germanic *newuntēhundą (“ninety”).^[9] It is formed from the base of nine and that of the suffix -ty, a group of ten;^[5][3][10] the prefix hund (“hundred”) of the longer form is matched by tneghentich and tnegentich.^[5][4] It is cognate with Old Frisian niguntich, Middle Dutch neghentich, Dutch negentig, Old Saxon nigunta, Old High German niunzug, German neunzig, Old Norse níu tigir and Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌴𐌷𐌿𐌽𐌳 (niuntehund).^[5][3] Modern Danish usually says halvfems, from halvfemsindstyve, literally "half-fifth times twenty", four score and half the fifth score.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nine times ten: in Old English, in the West Saxon Gospels, Luke 15:7, of the ninety-nine righteous persons.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the prefixed form hundnigontig was the more common one,^[5] and Johnson (1755) still gave it as the Saxon source.^[11] Use as an abstract number and for its figures is recorded from before 1425, and for ninety people or things understood from the context, such as years of age or degrees, from before 1450.^[5] Chaucer used it about 1400 in his treatise on the astrolabe, of degrees.^[2] Number ninety, the ninetieth of a series, appears in 1842,^[5] and the nineties are the years or the numbers from 90 to 99.^[10][12] In American gamblers' slang ninety days was the point nine at craps, from the usual jail sentence for running a game,^[13] and ninety was also a name for a pug, from its curled tail.^[13]

Timeline

• Old English – nine times ten.^[5][8]
• c. 1400 – in Chaucer's treatise on the astrolabe, 90 degrees.^[2]
• before 1425 – the abstract number and its figures.^[5]
• before 1450 – ninety people or things, as years of age.^[5]
• 1842 – the ninetieth of a series.^[5]
• 1898 – ninety days, the point nine in craps (US slang).^[13]

Modern meaning

Numeral

1. The cardinal number that is nine times ten, one more than eighty-nine; 90 or XC.
2. Amounting to ninety: She lived to be ninety.

Noun

1. A group or set of ninety people or things.
2. the nineties: the numbers from 90 to 99, especially the years of a century or of a person's age.

Word family

• ninetieth
• ninety-eight
• ninety-eighth
• ninety-first
• ninety-four
• ninety-fourth
• ninety-five
• ninety-fifth

Related words

• nine
• nineteen
• ninth
• hundred
• -ty

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com