Variations
Spatial or chronological ranks will use the standard linguistic ordinal numbers first, second, etc.; however, the ranking of precedence or effect often uses primary, secondary, etc. and historical rankings in literature, biology or music may use Greek prefixes, e.g., Proto-Isaiah, Deutero-Isaiah, Subjugalis ebdomi (seventh subjugation), endacato tergite (eleventh ring). The first twelve variations of ordinal numbers are given here.
| Spatial/chronological | first | second | third | fourth | fifth | sixth | seventh | eighth | ninth | tenth | eleventh | twelfth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Precedence/effect | primary | secondary | tertiary | quaternary | quinary | senary | septenary | octonary | novenary | decenary | undecenary | duodecenary |
| Greek prefix | proto- | deutero- | trito- | tetarto- | pempto- | ecto- | ebdomo- | ogdoo- | enato- | decato- | endecato- | dodecato- |
When speaking the numbers in fractions, the spatial/chronological numbering system is frequently used for denominators larger than 2. This system results in "two thirds" for 2/3 and "fifteen thirty-seconds" for 15/32. This system is normally used for denominators less than 100 and for many powers of 10. Examples include "six ten-thousandths" for 6/10,000 and "three hundredths" for 0.03.
Read more about this topic: Ordinal Number (linguistics)
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“I may be able to spot arrowheads on the desert but a refrigerator is a jungle in which I am easily lost. My wife, however, will unerringly point out that the cheese or the leftover roast is hiding right in front of my eyes. Hundreds of such experiences convince me that men and women often inhabit quite different visual worlds. These are differences which cannot be attributed to variations in visual acuity. Man and women simply have learned to use their eyes in very different ways.”
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