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noun
1.
a cardinal number, eight plus one.
2.
a symbol for this number, as 9 or IX.
3.
a set of this many persons or things.
4.
a baseball team.
5.
EXPANDa playing card with nine pips.
6.
COLLAPSEthe Nine, the Muses.
adjective
7.
amounting to nine in number.
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Nines
is always a great word to know.
So is gobo. Does it mean:
| a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc. |
| a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare. |
8.
dressed to the nines, looking one's best; dressed smartly, splendidly, etc.: All the girls were dressed to the nines for the party.
Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English nigan, nigon, cognate with Dutch negen, akin to German neun, Old Norse nīu, Gothic niun, Latin novem, Greek ennéa, Sanskrit náva
before 900; Middle English; Old English nigan, nigon, cognate with Dutch negen, akin to German neun, Old Norse nīu, Gothic niun, Latin novem, Greek ennéa, Sanskrit náva
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To nines
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
nine
O.E. nigen, from P.Gmc. *niwun (cf. O.Fris. niugun, O.N. niu, Du. negen, Ger. neun, Goth. niun "nine"), from PIE (e)newn (cf. Skt. nava, Avestan nava, Gk. ennea, Alb. nende, L. novem, Lith. devnyi, O.C.S. deveti (the Balto-Slavic forms by dissimilation of -n- to -d-), O.Ir. noin, Welsh naw). Ninth is
EXPANDO.E. nigonðe. Sense in cloud nine, etc., possibly because, "As the largest one-figure integer, nine is sometimes used for emphasis" [Shipley]. Nine to five "the average workday" is attested from 1959. Nine days has been proverbial since 14c. for the time which a wonder or novelty holds attention. The game of ninepins is attested from 1580.
nines
in phrase to the nines "to perfection" (1787) first attested in Burns, apparently preserves the ancient notion of the perfection of the number as three times three (e.g. the nine Muses, etc.
"[T]he Book of St. Albans, in the sections on blasonry, lays great stress on the nines in which all perfect things (orders of angels, virtues, articles of chivalry, differences of coat armour, etc.) occur." [Weekley]No one seems to consider that it might be a corruption of to then anes, lit. "for the one (purpose or occasion)," a similar construction to the one that yielded nonce (q.v.).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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