An Ear to the Ground Series - Part 9 " Dressed up to the Nines"...

We continue our journey through the formation of the English language.

"Dressed to the Nines":

Why is a smartly dressed person sometimes referred to as DRESSED UP TO THE NINES? One theory suggests an allusion to a very high standard, nine marks out of a possible ten. This dos not sound very convincing; nor does the theory that the expression refers to the nine Muses - a group of sister goddesses in Greek mythology who each protected or sponsored one of the arts.

A more likely explanation is that the phrase was, in early English, something like DRESSED UP TO THEN EYNE - that is, 'dressed up to the eyes' ( much as we might today speak of a businessman as being UP TO HIS EYES IN DEBT)

Plurals in earlier foms of English were sometimes indicated by an - N rather than an -S ending - EYNE FOR EYES, rather like KINE for COWS - and the word THE sometimes took the form THEN. In more recent times, the old phrase THEN EYNE was misheard as THE NINES, and written down that way.

This slurring has affected the form of many individual English words: in Middle English a NICKNAME was originally AN EKENAME (an 'also' - name), and a NEWT WAS AN EWT. By the reverse process in Middle English AN UMPIRE developed from A NOUMPERE. and AN APRON from NAPRON.

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