ninth

Pluralninths

Formsninths, ninthing, ninthed

1. 1
   adjective

   The ordinal form of the number nine, used for the item that comes after the eighth in a sequence.

   The team scored two runs in the ninth inning to win the game.

   Beethoven completed his ninth symphony near the end of his life.

   Note

   An ordinal that lost a sound and later got it back. Old English niġoþa had no n before the ending, and Middle English nynte shows the same gap. The -n- was restored by analogy with nine, so the modern word reads simply as nine plus -th. It almost always follows the (the ninth grade, the ninth director of the FBI) and has no comparative or superlative.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The person or thing that occupies position nine in a sequence or ranking.

   The ninth in the batting order is often the pitcher.

   Of the candidates interviewed that week, the ninth got the job.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   One of nine equal parts into which a whole is divided.

   A ninth of the estate went to each of the nine heirs.

   The recipe calls for two ninths of a cup, an awkward measurement by any standard.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A musical interval spanning nine degrees of the staff, equal to an octave plus a second; a minor ninth contains thirteen semitones and a major ninth fourteen.

   The chord includes a ninth, which gives it a rich, jazzy color.

   The melody opens with a dramatic leap of a minor ninth.

   Note

   Interval names count both ends. From one of the scale up to two of the octave above, nine degrees of the staff are touched, though only eight steps separate them. That is why a ninth is classed as a compound interval, an octave stacked on a second. It also explains why it comes in the same two sizes as the second, minor and major.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To divide a quantity or number by nine.

   To split the proceeds fairly, the nine partners agreed to ninth the profits.

   The surveyor ninthed the plot so that each heir received an equal strip of land.

   Note

   Statistics writing gives this verb a working life beyond school arithmetic. Contributions to Survey Sampling and Applied Statistics (2014) speaks of taking means of the results of ninthing, under a heading for the ninther-mean combination, as a remedy for wild and straggling values. Its forms are regular (ninths, ninthing, ninthed), but it remains rare enough that a general reader may pause at it.

6. 6
   verb

   To lose a ninth part, typically when one ninth of an offering or payment is given up as a due.

   A yearling "is ninthed" for Semele on Myconos (LSCG 96.23–24); the victim "is not ninthed" for Heracles Thasios

   2010, Religion and Reconciliation in Greek Cities: The Sacred Laws of Selinus and Cyrene

   οὐ[δ̓] ὲνατεὐεται, should be translated “a tithe (offering or fee) is not given (or paid)”, “no tithing” (literally, “a ninth is not given”, “no ninth-ing”, if I may coin such a word).

   1973, Herakles on Thasos

   Note

   A scholar's word for a Greek ritual due, modeled on tithing. In Herakles on Thasos (1973), the author offers ninth-ing as an openly confessed coinage, while still translating the Greek itself as tithing. The verb lives mostly in the passive: a yearling is ninthed for Semele on Myconos, and a victim for Heracles Thasios is not. Outside studies of ancient Greek religion it is hardly met.

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