Wow, it’s been a
very long time since I’ve done one of these. Since… holy crap, last December.
Damn.
As a word, eight
showed up in the late fourteenth century as eighte, and even earlier as ehte. It’s from the Old English eahta/aehta,
which is from the Proto
Germanic akhto, and before that
the Proto Indo European
okto.
As for the
symbol… well, that’s where things get crazy. Medieval writing has it as an 8,
but in Arabic (where the numerals came to us from) it’s more of a ^ (the
opposite of 7, which was that symbol inverted). Earlier, in Hindu, it’s like if
it was part of the 8, as was in Brahmi, just with a slightly different part of the symbol. No real
explanation for why we switched that digit’s symbol, though. Maybe to
distinguish it more? But that’s pure guesswork on my part.
Ah, these posts
are so quick and easy. They certainly don’t last nine weeks, that’s for sure.
Sources
Tony Jebson’s
page on the Origins of
Old English
A figure eight would look lame if it were like >.
ReplyDeleteThat's clear enough.
ReplyDeleteIs the Arabic symbol what the Egyptians used?
ReplyDeleteWell, we couldn't do the opposite of 7 now as that's an L.
ReplyDeleteClearly, eight came down with delusions of infinite grandeur.
ReplyDelete