Etymology

ninety

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Today it means: The cardinal number occurring after eighty-nine and before ninety-one, represented in Roman numerals as XC and in Arabic numerals as 90. Full definition →

Middle English nynty ← Old English hundniġontiġ ← Proto-Germanic *newuntēhundą
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*newuntēhundą“ninety”
  2. Old English · inherited fromhundniġontiġ
  3. Middle English · inherited fromnynty
  4. English todayninety

From Middle English nynty, nynety, from Old English hundniġontiġ, from Proto-Germanic *newuntēhundą (“ninety”), equivalent to nine + -ty. Cognate with Scots nynty, nynety (“ninety”), Saterland Frisian njuugentich (“ninety”), West Frisian njoggentich (“ninety”), Dutch negentig (“ninety”), German Low German negentig (“ninety”), German neunzig (“ninety”), Swedish nittio (“ninety”), Norwegian Bokmål nitti (“ninety”), Norwegian Nynorsk nitti (“ninety”), Icelandic níutíu (“ninety”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.