a. Obs. Forms: 3 eȝten(e)de, ehtende, (Orm.) ehhtennde, 4 eyh-, eytand, -end, aighteden, agt-, aghtand(e, -end, aghten, achtande, aughtene, 5 heghten, auchtand, 6 egh-, eyȝ-, eyhtyn(e, eighytyn, auchtane, -in. [The northern form of EIGHTH; perh. of Scandinavian origin; cf. ON. (*ahtundi) áttundi; the intrusive n, due to the analogy of seventh (cf. ONorthumb. seofunða), occurs also in OFris. achtunda.] = EIGHTH.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 87. On þe ehtende dai after þe childes burde, þe frend shopen þe child name.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2543. Ðe eȝtenede king amonaphis, Agenes ðis folc hatel is.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9169. Þe eyhtand sibile bigan to rise. Ibid., 10573. Of decembre þe aghten dai Was sco geten.
c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr. (1866), 11. The aughtene commandement es that ‘thou sall noghte bere false wyttnes agaynes thi neghteboure.’
c. 1440. Melayne, 828. All solde come … By the heghten day at none.
1522. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), V. 150. I will that my executrix … make an eghtyn day honestly for me.
1558. Lyndesay, Dreme, 531. The sewint [is callit] Thronus, the auchtin, Cherubin.
b. Comb. † eightin-dele, -dole [lit. eighth part]: an obsolete measure of capacity.
(Wey in Promp. Parv. says ‘1/8 of a coom’ = 16 quarts; the haughendo, aghendole of Lancashire may be the same word, though identified with HALVENDEAL by the editors of Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), who quote conflicting explanations of it as ‘7 quarts,’ ‘8 pounds.’)
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 137. Eyȝtyndele, mesure.
1887. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, V. 323. At Gawthorp … Shuttleworth pays 6d. for an eightendole.
