Ethiopic Number Ninety

It means ninety in Ethiopic numerals.

Ethiopic number signs represent values rather than decimal places. The marker ፻ means one hundred, so ፺፻ is ninety hundreds, or 9,000. The sign ፺ is a numeral, not a syllable letter.

How did Ethiopic numerals develop?

The numeral signs’ exact origin is disputed.

A 2010 comparative history cites the late-third-century Anza stela as an early example. A 2023 study argues that Hənzat Stela 1 is the oldest evidence for numerals written as figures and says older inscriptions wrote numbers as words.

One account connects the signs’ shapes to Greek letters, perhaps through Coptic; that study instead argues for local development from Geʾez consonant letters and punctuation. Aksumite coins and stone monuments used the numerals for regnal years and quantities; medieval mathematical, astronomical, and religious books used them too. In 1852, an Amharic New Testament used Ethiopic numerals for page, chapter, and verse numbers.