nine-inning
Meaning
Consisting of or lasting for nine innings, the standard regulation length of a professional baseball game.
Structure
Usage
The pitchers dueled in a tense nine-inning game that remained scoreless until the final out.
Due to rain, the scheduled nine-inning contest was shortened to an official five-inning game.
He pitched his first complete nine-inning shutout of the season last night.
Etymology
The compound "nine-inning" is a modern American English formation specific to the sport of baseball. The first element, "nine," derives from the ancient Germanic numeral, establishing the quantity. The second element, "inning," has a more complex journey from an Old English verb meaning "to get inside," evolving to signify a turn or period of play in games. In the context of baseball, established in the 19th century, an "inning" became one of two halves (top and bottom) of a turn at bat for each team. The compound adjective "nine-inning" logically fuses these concepts to describe the standard, complete duration of a regulation game, literally meaning "of or pertaining to nine divisions of play."
Analysis
- nine: From Old English nigon, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch negen and German neun. Functions as a numerical determiner. - inning: From Old English inning 'a putting in, getting in', from innian 'to get within, put within'. In cricket and baseball, it came to denote a division of play. Functions as a noun.