a. (sb.) Forms: 1 (hund)eahtatiʓ, -æhtatiʓ, -ehtatiʓ, -eahtiʓ, 3–4 eiȝteti, 5 eyȝty, 6 eyghty, eightie, 6– eighty. [OE. hundeahtatiʓ, f. hund- (prefix to the denary numerals: see HUNDRED) + eahta EIGHT + -tiʓ:—OTeut. *tigiwiz plur. of *tegu-z decade (see -TY).]

1

  1.  The cardinal number equal to eight tens, represented by 80 or lxxx. Also with omission of sb. and in comb. with numbers below ten (ordinal and cardinal), as eighty-one, eighty-first, etc.

2

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter lxxxix. [xc.] 10. In mæhtum hundæhtatiʓes ʓera. Ibid., O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), Introd. Gaius Iulius Romana Kasero mid hund ehtatiʓum scipum ʓesohte Brytene.

3

1297.  R. Glouc. (1810), 478. Endleue hundred ȝer of grace, & eiȝteti & thre.

4

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XVIII. 349. Auchty thousand he wes and ma.

5

1382.  Wyclif, Isa. xxxvii. 36. The aungil of the Lord smot in the tentus of Assiries an hundrid and fyue and eiȝteti thousend.

6

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 137. Eyȝty, octoginta.

7

1530.  Palsgr., 367. Octante, eyghty, lxxx.

8

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., IV. i. 96. Eightie odde yeeres of sorrow haue I seene.

9

1655.  Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. 187. Mr. Fox fore-told the ruine and destruction of the Invincible (so called) Armado in the eighty eight.

10

1771.  Raper, in Phil. Trans., LXI. 533. When the Romans began to coin gold, it did not exceed the eighty-fourth part of their Pound.

11

1777.  Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), II. 217. In the year one thousand four hundred and eighty-five.

12

1872.  Morley, Voltaire (1886), 47. Aspasia, now over eighty.

13

  2.  quasi-sb. a. The age of eighty years. b. The eighties: the years between eighty and ninety in a particular century.

14

1835.  E. Elliot, Poems, 221. He stoop’d no more, like toothless eighty.

15

1883.  Seeley, Expansion of Eng., 260. Adam Smith, writing in the eighties.

16

  3.  Comb., as in eighty-gun ship.

17

1747.  J. Lind, Lett. Navy, i. (1757), 30. I have known some gentlemen captains of eighty gun ships, who by the rules of the navy, were not old enough to be lieutenants.

18

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Hh ij b. The 80-gun ships … begin to grow out of repute.

19