seven+of+nine

(gen. -ar; pl. -ir, acc. -u), m. a ten, decade, = tegr, tøgr, togr, tugr; tíu tigir manna, one hundred men; hálfan fjórða tøg skipa, thirty-five ships; sex ins fimta tigar, forty-six; vetri fátt í fjóra tigu, thirty-nine years.

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tegr, also tögr, togr, tugr, m., gen. tigar, pl. tigir, acc. tigu (tögo, tugu), later tigi, Band. 36, Fb. iii. 578; [a Goth. tigus is suggested by the adj. -tigjus; A. S. tig, teg; O. H. G. zic, zuc; Germ. zebn; Dan. ty; Engl. ten.]

A. A ten, decade. The ancient Scandinavians and Teutons had no indeclinable numeral adjectives from twenty to a hundred; the word tigr (like hundrað and þúsund) being a regular substantive. The ancient way of counting is therefore complex and curious; e. g. forty-one was called ‘four tens and one’ or ‘one of the fifth decade;’ forty-eight was called ‘four tens and eight,’ or by counting back, ‘five tens short of two,’ cp. the Lat. un-de-viginti, duo-de-triginta: forty-five was called ‘half the fifth ten,’ and so on, as will best be seen from the references below; and so it goes on to ‘one hundred and twenty,’ for in Icel. a hundred means the duodecimal hundred. In the 14th century (in deeds) ‘tigr’ began to lose its character of a substantive, eg. þrjátigir, fimtigir …, or þrjátigi, fimtigi (used inclecl.), whence at last came the mod. þrjátíu, fjörutíu, fimtíu …, the tíu being a contracted form from the acc. pl. tigu. At the same time hundrað and þúsund became indecl. adjectives, e. g. þrjátiu, brjúhundruð, þrjuþúsund skipum, for the old þrem tiguin hundruðum, þúsundum skipa.

B. REFERENCES: þessi vetr fylidi annan tög aldrs Magnúss konungs, this winter completed the second ten, i. e. the twentieth year, of king Magnus’ life, Fms. vi. 90; þat skipti tögum, it amounted to tens, several tens, ii. 32; þrjá tigu manna, three tens of men, Eg. 41; á þrem tigum daga, on three tens of days, 656 A. ii. 14; þrír tigir hundraða, Dipl. v. 2; níu tigu manna, Eg. 62; þrettán tigi aura, Band. 36; nær fjórum tigum faðma töðu, well-nigh four tens of fathoms, i. e. forty, Dipl. v. 18; fjóra togo dægra, 655 iii. 3; sex togo hundraða, D.I. i. 350; sex tigir manna, Grág. ii. 194; sex tigir þúsunda manna, Post.; sex tigu hundraða, six tens of hundreds, i. e. sixty hundred, i. e. six thousand, Orkn. 416 old Ed.; tíu tigir manna, ten tens of men, i. e. one hundred, Nj. 191; tíu tigo fjár, K. Þ. K. 140; tíu tigum ásauðar, a hundred sheep, Dipl. v. 19; tíu tegu bæja, Fms. viii. 203: ellifu tigir vætta skreiðar, eleven tens, i. e. one hundred and ten, 655 iii. 4; even, þrettán tigi aura, thirteen tens, i. e. one hundred and thirty, Band. 36; fimtán tigum sinna, fifteen tens, i. e. one hundred and fifty, Dipl. ii. 14: repeating, fjóra tigi vetra ok fjóra vetr, four tens of winters and four winters, i. e. forty-four years, ÓH. (pref.); með tveim skipum ok átta togum skipa, Fms. x. 394; sex tigi vetra ok fjóra vetr, Ó. H. (pref.); þrjá tigi ára ok sex ár, three tens of years and six years, Bs. i. 30; eitt skip ok sjau tigu skipa, i. e. seventy-one, Fms. x. 344; hálfan fjórða tög vetra, half the fourth decade, i. e. thirty-five, vi. 430; hálfan fjórða tög skipa, i. 76; hálfr fimti tugr kúgilda, half the fifth decade, i. e. forty-five, Dipl. v. 18; hálfr þriði tögr manna, Ísl. ii. 387, Ld. 292; hálfr átti tögr kirkna, seventy-five, Clem.; á einu ári ins fimmta tigar konungdóms Hákonar, on the first year of the fifth ten, i. e. forty-first, Sturl. iii. 308; hann hafði vetr ens sétta tigar, one winter of the sixth ten, i. e. fifty-one, Fms. ix. 534; á öðru ári ens fjórða tigar, i. 67; annann vetr ens fjórða tigar konungdóms hans, Fms. x. 33, Bs. i. 74; fjóra vetr ens tíunda tegar, Ó. H. (pref.); sex ens fjórða tigar, i. e. thirty-six, Thorodd; vikur tvær ens sétta tegar, i. e. fifty-two, Íb. 7; hann hafði sjau vetr ens sjaunda tigar, i. e. sixty-seven, Ld. 330; á enum sjaunda vetri ens sjaunda tugar aldrs síns, Eb. 125 new Ed.; á enum sétta vetri ens átta tugar aldrs síns, Sturl. ii. 187; Þorkell hafði átta vetr ens fimta tigar þá er hann druknaði, i. e. forty-eight, Ld. 326; átta dagar ens níunda tegar, i. e. eighty-two, 1812. 49; átta aurar ens fimta tigar, Grág. ii. 144; á níunda ári ens sjaunda tigar ens tíunda hundraðs, in the ninth year of the seventh ten of the tenth hundred (i. e. 969 A. D.), Fms. i. 67; þá var Egill á níunda tigi, then was Egil in the ninth ten ( between eighty and ninety years of age), Eg. 764; vetri fátt í fjóra tigu, one year short of four tens, i. e. thirty-nine, Fms. x. 2, v. l.; lítið fátt í fimm tigi vetra, iii. 60; einu ári fátt í fimm tigi, i. e. forty-nine, … vetri einum fátt í níu tigi ára gamall, i. e. aged eighty-nine, Fb. iii. 578: curious is the phrase, af-tig gamall, = Lat. unde-viginti, aged ‘lacking twenty,’ i. e. nineteen years old, Fms. vii. 84 (in a verse); the context and chronology shew that this is the sense, and not as explained in Lex. Poët. s. v. afstigr: níu tigir ok tvau ár (elliptically dropping gen. ára), Dipl. v. 3; whence lastly as adj., þrítigir álnir (sic) lérepts, id.; fjöre-tiger manns, Bs. i. 867. As this method was somewhat unwieldy, the counting by twenty was also resorted to, cp. Gramm. xxi, sex merkr ok tuttugu; spænir þrír ok tuttugu, … sjautján merkr ok tuttugu, Bs. i. 874 (Laur. S.), or the word tigr was altogether discarded, and replaced by skor or sneis (Engl. score, Dan. snees). ☞ As in vellums the numbers are mostly represented by Roman figures, and abbreviations used, the editions cannot in these cases be implicitly relied on; the same is the case with old texts preserved in mod. paper transcripts.

-tögr, -togr, -tugr, adj. (the mod. form is - tugr), only in compds, tví-tugr, þrí-tugr, fer-tugr, fim-tugr, sex-tugr, sjau-tugr (then átt-ræðr, ní-ræðr, tí-ræðr, tólf-ræðr), = twenty, thirty … years old, or measuring twenty …; so also, hálf-þrítugr, hálf-fertugr, hálf-fimmtugr, hálf-sixtugr, hálf-sjautugr, aged, measuring half the third, fourth … seventh ten, i. e. twenty-five, thirty-five, … sixty-five; var honum vetri fátt í hálf-fimtugum, five tens minus one, i. e. forty-nine, Grett. 186 new Ed.; skorti þrjá vetr á fimtugan at aldri, i. e. forty-seven, Bs. i. 74; tveim vetrum meirr enn þrítogr, 30; þá skorti hann vetr á þrítugan …, fimmtugan, i. e. aged twenty-nine …, forty-nine, Sturl. iii. 308; þá var hann vetri meirr enn hálf-fertugr, i. e. thirty-six, Bs. i. 79.

m. the place of the sun at half-past three P. M.; meira var þar jafndægri en á Grænlandi eðr Íslandi, sól hafði þar eyktar-stað ok dagmála-stað um skamdegi, Fb. i. 539,—this passage refers to the discovery of America; but in A. A. l. c. it is wrongly explained as denoting the shortest day nine hours long, instead of seven; it follows that the latitude fixed by the editors of A. A. is too far to the south; frá jafndægri er haust til þess er sól setzk í eykðarstað, þá er vetr til jafndægris, Edda 103.

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(að), v. to fast, abstain from food; f. þurt, to fast on dryfood.

1) fast, fasting;

2) season appointed for fasting (níu vikna f.).

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u, f. [Ulf. fastubni; O. H. G. fastá; Germ. faste; Swed. fasta; Dan. faste; a word introduced along with Christianity; the old Scandinavians could have no such word, as voluntary fasting was unknown in the heathen rites, and at the first introduction of Christianity the practice was sorely complained of, cp. Hkr. Hák. S. Góða, ch. 17]:—a fast, fasting, Hom. 73, K. Þ. K. 122, Rb. 82; the word therefore occurs first in poets of the beginning of the 11th century, e. g. Fms. vi. 86, cp. boð-f., lög-f., etc.

COMPDS: föstuafbrigð, föstubindandi, föstudagr, Föstudagsnótt, Föstukveld, föstumatr, Föstumorgin, Föstunátt, föstutíð, föstutími.

II. Lent, Fms. viii. 28, Ld. 320, N. G. L. i. 12; distinction is made between the Easter Lent, (sjö-vikna Fasta, seven weeks Lent, also called langa F., the long Fast, K. Þ. K. 122, Bs. i. 801, and passim; níu-vikna F., the nine weeks Lent, K. Þ. K. 122, Grág. i. 325), and Jóla-f., (the Yule Lent, the time from Advent to Yule, Grág. l. c., Rb. 46, K. Þ. K. 124.) Föstu-gangr or Föstu-ígangr and -inngangr, m. beginning of these seasons, esp. Lent; fimm eru föstu-ígangar, Clem. 58, Sturl. iii. 81, Rb. 4 (v. l.), 48, 76. Föstu-prédikan, f. a Lenten sermon. Föstu-tjald, n. hangings used in churches during Lent, Vm. 52, 109.

n. ‘night-meal,’ taken as a point of time, about nine o’clock P. M., answering to dagmál (q. v.) in the morning; ok er komit var at náttmáli, Fms. viii. 89; nónhelgan dag til náttmáls, Grág. i. 143; þeir koma þar fyrir náttmál, Nj. 197, v. l. (matmál Ed. less good); kom þar eldr í bæinn um náttmál, Bs. i. 78: in mod. usage only in plur., líðandi náttmál, jöfnu-báðu miðaptans og náttmála (= half-past seven o’clock P. M.)

COMPDS: náttmálaskeið, náttmálavarða.