seventh-inning
Meaning
Occurring in or relating to the seventh inning of a baseball or softball game.
Structure
Usage
The manager made a crucial seventh-inning substitution to bolster the defense.
The tradition of the seventh-inning stretch is a beloved part of the baseball experience.
Their seventh-inning rally brought them from behind to win the game.
Etymology
The term is a modern American English compound, specifically crafted for the context of baseball. The first element, 'seventh,' derives from the ancient Proto-Indo-European root for the number seven, which passed into Germanic and Old English to denote ordinal sequence. The second element, 'inning,' has a more general origin in Old English, referring originally to the act of collecting or putting inside, which evolved in sporting contexts to mean a team's turn at batting or a full cycle of play. The compound 'seventh-inning' logically fuses these concepts to pinpoint a specific, often critical, late-game period, famously associated with the "seventh-inning stretch" tradition. Its formation follows the standard English pattern of combining an ordinal number with a unit noun to create a precise temporal adjective.
Analysis
seventh: From Old English seofunda, seofoþa, from Proto-Germanic sebundô. The root is related to the number seven. In this compound, it functions as a numerical specifier. inning: From Old English inning, meaning "a taking in, a putting in," from innian "to get within, put within." In baseball, it functions as a noun meaning a division of play.