eighth, a. and n.
(eɪtθ)
Forms: eahtoða, eah-, ehteða- (late WS. also eahteoða), 1–3 eah-, ehtuða, -ðe, 3 eihteoðe, -tuðe, eg-, ehteðe, 3–4 eiȝteðe, -iþe, aȝtþe, 5 eghtid, eyted, 7– eighth: from 3– the forms are often identical with those of the cardinal, 3 eiȝt, 4 eȝte, heyt, aght, 5 eght, 5–6 eyght, 6 awght, ayghte, 5–9 eight, Sc. aucht.
[OE. eahtoða = OHG. ahtodo (MHG. ahtode, ahtede, ahte, mod.G. achte) repr. OTeut. type ahˈtoþon-, f. *ahtau, *ahtô eight (The OS. ahtodo, Goth. ahtuda represent a type *ˈahtođon-, the result of accent-shifting or of analogy; for the OFris. and ON. forms see eightin.]
A. adj.
1. a. That comes next in order to the seventh.
| a 1000 Menologium 3 (Gr.) Crist wæs..on þy eahteoðan dæᵹ Hælend ᵹehaten. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 298 Eahtoþe is þæs stanes mæᵹen, þæt, etc. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 81 Þet me sculde in þe ehtuþe dei þet knaue child embsniþen. a 1225 Ancr. R. 144 Þe eihtuðe þinc is hu muchel is þe mede iðe blisse of heouene. a 1300 Signs before Judgm. 113 in E.E.P. (1862) 10 Þe eiȝt dai so is dotus and þat ful wel þou salt se. a 1300 Cursor M. 29310 Þe aght case falles all þa in þat any witchecraft gers bigyn. 138. Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 267 Þe eiȝtiþe condicioun. c 1400 Destr. Troy 6222 The Eghtid Batell in the burgh [was] Vnder Serces..the souerain of Perce. 1477 Norton Ord. Alch. vi. in Ashm. (1652) 100 The vertue of the Eight sphere. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings viii. 66 And on the eight daye he let the people go. 1552 Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 11 The rycht keping of the aucht command. 1605 Heywood If you know not me Wks. 1874 I. 207 If it be treason To be the daughter to th' eight Henry, I am a traitor. 1609 Bp. Hall Disswas. Poperie (1627) 635 Let him heare Origen, what he answers, in the eight volume of his Explanations of Esay. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 194 The sixth, eighth or tenth day. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. liii. (1838) V. 266 But the seventh and eighth centuries were a period of discord and darkness. 1887 Gray's Anat. (ed. 11) 667 The eighth or auditory nerve. |
b. With ellipsis of n., to be supplied from context. Also in dates, with ellipsis of day (of the month).
| a 1000 Guthlac 1010 (Gr.) Min feorh heonan On þisse eahteðan [nihte] ende ᵹeseceð. 1297 R. Glouc. (1810) 473 The eiȝtethe was, that..citacion non nere Thoru bulle of the pope. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 1010 Þe aȝtþe þe beryl cler & quyt. a 1400 Cov. Myst. (1841) 83 The eyted is contempt of veyn glory in us. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 77 Þe heyt. Crist biddiþ in þe gospel to His vicar, turn þe swerd in to þe scheþ. 1526 Tindale Rev. xxi. 20 The ayghte berall. 1588 A. King tr. Canisius' Catech. 183 The awght is meiknes quhilk assuages and mitigats al angrie motions of ire. 1642 Chas. I. Answ. Petit. Pres. at York 18 Apr. 1 Our Message of the eighth of April. 1647 Lilly Chr. Astrol. xliv. 257 When the Lord of the Ascendant is..in the Antiscion of the Lord of the eighth. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 67 The space of seven continu'd Nights he [Satan] rode With darkness..On the eighth return'd. 1861 Ramsay Remin. Ser. ii. 181 She answered them..‘The tongue no man can tame..James Third and Aucht’, and drank off her glass. |
2. eighth part: one of eight equal parts into which a quantity may be divided.
| 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cxxvii. 154 He had nat the eyght part in nombre of men as the frenche kynge had. 1571 Digges Pantom. iii. ix. R ij, An eight part of the great Pyramis HIK. 1660 H. Bloome Archit. A. c, One eight part of the thicknesse. |
3. eighth note = quaver n.1 U.S.
| 1889 in Cent. Dict. 1958 Blesh & Janis They all played Ragtime iv. 77 Unaccented eighth notes alternating with accented quarter notes. |
B. n.
1. a. = eighth part. See A. 2.
| 1557 Recorde Whetst. B ij b, An eight more. 1747 J. Lind Lett. Navy i. (1757) 23 The commander in chief is to have one half of the eight. 1842 Prichard Nat. Hist. Man 391 The Muskhoyees from seven eighths of what is termed the Creek Confederacy. |
b. Mil. eighth-wheel, when a body of troops revolves upon its centre or one of its ends to the extent of one-eighth part of a circle.
| 1796 Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 110 The eighth wheel is toward the flank which is to be the head of the column..Advantage will arise if the eighth wheel is made on the center of each body. Ibid. 130 According to the degree ordered, whether half, quarter, or eighth wheel. |
2. † a. Music. = octave. Obs. An interval of seven notes of the diatonic scale.
| 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 70 A third, a Fift, a Sixt, and an eight. 1652 News fr. Lowe-Countr. 8 He..Knows Thirds, Fifths, Eights, Rests, Moods, and Time. 1694 Phil. Trans. XVIII. 73 He next Observes, that all Progressions by Concords, except by Eighths, produce Discord. 1706 A. Bedford Temple Mus. iii. 54 They sang the..Part an Eighth, or Seven Notes higher than the Men. |
b. The note separated from any given one above or below by an interval of an eighth.
| 1609 Douland Ornith. Microl. 15 In b fa {sharp} mi, and his eight, you may not sing mi for fa. 1674 Playford Skill Mus. i. i. 3 Which will be the same, and only eights to those above. 1685 Boyle Effects of Mot. vii. 88, I made him raise his Voice to an Eighth. |
c. = eighth note.
| 1956 M. Stearns Story of Jazz (1957) xxi. 273 Iturbi produces the feeling that he is playing straight (not dotted) eighths. |