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From: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold%CGL)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: The magic number nine.
Message-ID: <484@ucsfcgl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Apr-85 18:06:14 EST
Article-I.D.: ucsfcgl.484
Posted: Wed Apr 17 18:06:14 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Apr-85 03:28:09 EST
References: <388@ihu1m.UUCP>
Reply-To: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE)
Distribution: net
Organization: UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
Lines: 15
Summary: 

In article <388@ihu1m.UUCP> gadfly@ihu1m.UUCP (Gadfly) writes:
>"Possession is nine points of the law."  I asked about this
>one (often misstated as "Possession is nine tenths of the law.")
>ken perlow       *****   *****

Misstated?  Says who?  I learned it as "nine tenths"; who makes you
right?

As such, nine tenths (90%) is an indicator of the nearly absolute
importance of possesion.  This phrase doesn't seem extrememly unusual:
90% or 99% is often used (sloppily) by people to mean "most", e.g.,
"This damn thing fails 99% of the time".  "Nine out of ten" uses of
"nine" seem rather self-explanatory, meaning "most, but not quite
all".  Your other uses ("Dressed to the nines" and "the whole nine
yards") cannot be explained by your truly.