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Glite Dictionary
7️⃣ The number 78 💿 An old record
seventy-eight

seventy-eight

1 9.9
An old record for a record player that spins 78 times a minute
  • noun
  • /ˈsɛv.ən.ti eɪt/
  • Archaic
translation icon : disco de 78
  • She cherished her collection of seventy-eight records, each holding a unique musical history.
  • seventy-eight RPM record

Examples

  • The old-fashioned jukebox played a seventy-eight record filled with classic jazz tunes.

  • That is, since 1960, seventy-eight years old is the average age at which a Justice has left the bench.

    Academic text (2017)

  • I begin to look around me at the casual piles of books and seventy-eight RPM record jackets that fill the room.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • The company earned this gold star on the "M" pennant for delivering Liberty ships within seventy-eight days from keel laying to delivery (Hulls 19-24).

    Academic text (2009)

  • Listening to a seventy-eight was a nostalgic experience that transported him back to his childhood.

Synonyms

78
vsseventy-eight
  • Archaic
9.9

An old round record played on a gramophone that spins 78 times each minute

is the same record defined by playback purpose without the historical note

Surface Forms

seventy-eight singular
seventy-eights plural

Morphology

seventy-eight = seventy + eight (semi-transparent) = seventy + eight

The number phrase clearly refers to 78 rpm, but the noun meaning 'a shellac phonograph record' is a conventional specialized label rather than a fully predictable composition.

Etymology

Seventy-eight for a record comes from how fast the disc played: it turned about '78 times per minute', so people started calling those old shellac records 'seventy-eights'.