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From: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: The magic number nine.
Message-ID: <428@psivax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Apr-85 12:38:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: psivax.428
Posted: Tue Apr 30 12:38:23 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 3-May-85 03:38:21 EDT
References: <388@ihu1m.UUCP> <134@bocklin.UUCP> <625@lsuc.UUCP>
Reply-To: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley friesen)
Distribution: net
Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA
Lines: 24
Summary: 

In article <625@lsuc.UUCP> msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader) writes:
>
>This looks quite unbelievable to me.  Surely the original basis was
>indeed some phrase meaning 9/10, such as "9 points out of 10".  (Which, of
>course, makes the "misstatement" quite correct, as someone else said.)  And
>then somebody came up with the list in retrospect.  Does Brewer's actually say
>that the idiom is derived from the list?  ... I thought not.
>
>Maybe "N points" is an old idiom for "N points out of N+1", i.e. N/(N+1) ?
>Seems to me that I have seen "3 points drunk" for "3/4 drunk" or some such
>phrase somewhere in British writing, but I can't remember for sure.
>

	I think this may indeed be the case. In medieval England the
phrase "N *parts*" meant "N part out of N+1". They also used the phrase
"the Nth part of", to mean 1/N. These usages seem to be quite simliar
to the "Nine points" phrase. (If you want numerous examples of the
above usage try reading a translation of the Domesday Book)
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

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