eight

Etymology 1

From Middle English eighte, aught, eahte, ahte, from Old English eahta, from Proto-West Germanic *ahtō, from Proto-Germanic *ahtōu, from Proto-Indo-European *oḱtṓw. Cognate with Scots aucht (“eight”), West Frisian acht (“eight”), Dutch acht (“eight”), Low German acht (“eight”), German acht (“eight”), Norwegian åtte (“eight”), Swedish åtta (“eight”), Icelandic átta (“eight”), Latin octo (“eight”), Ancient Greek ὀκτώ (oktṓ), Irish ocht (“eight”).

num

1. A numerical value equal to 8; the number occurring after seven and before nine.
   2009, Stuart Heritage, Hecklerspray, Friday the 22nd of May in 2009 at 1 o’clock p.m., “Jon & Kate Latest: People You Don’t Know Do Crap You Don’t Care About” Jon & Kate Plus 8 is a show based on two facts: 1) Jon and Kate Gosselin have eight children, and 2) the word ‘Kate’ rhymes with the word ‘eight’. One suspects that if Kate were ever to have another child, a shady network executive would urge her to put it in a binbag with a brick and drop it down a well. But this is just a horrifying tangent.
2. Describing a group or set with eight elements.
   He works eight hours a day.

noun

1. The digit/figure 8.
2. (playing cards) Any of the four cards in a normal deck with the value eight.
3. (nautical) A light, narrow rowing boat, especially one used in competitive rowing, steered by a cox, in which eight rowers each have two oars.
4. (rowing, especially in plural) A race in which such craft participate.
5. (rowing) The eight people who crew a rowing-boat.
6. Eight o'clock.
   Sharp at eight we were waiting on the wharf where the Messagerie boats lie, and wondering what the deuce was going to happen. 1905, Guy Newell Boothby, “The Treasure of Sacramento Nick”, in A Crime of the Under-Seas, London: Ward Lock & Co Limited, →OCLC, →OL
   Miranda showed him in at a quarter to eight, accompanied by a pretty young woman she introduced as Erin d'Angelo. 1 February 1997 [12 April 1981], John Dunning, Deadline, New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., →OCLC, →OL, page 263

adj

1. Obsolete spelling of eighth

Etymology 2

See ait.

noun

1. Alternative spelling of ait (island in a river)