Old English eahta| Indo-european *OKTÔ(U) | Sanskrit ASHTA | Greek, Attic OKTΩ OKTÔ | Latin OCTO | Italian otto | French huit | Spanish ocho | Portuguese oito | Catalan vuit | Provençal oit | Romanian opt | Rumansh otg | Sardinian òto | Old Germanic AHTÔ | Dutch and German acht | Danish otte | Norwegian åtte | Swedish åtta | Icelandic átta | Old Slavic OS(T)MI | Russian восемь vósyem’ | Czech osm | Slovenian ósem | Polish osiem | Old Chinese (pron.) pwat | Chinese 八 bā. | Semitic root Th-M-Ny | Ancient Egyptian [ḫmn-] khemennu | Akkadian samane | Arabic ثمانيه thamâniya | Hebrew שמונה shemônah | Maltese tmienja | Amharic semmint (pron. səmənətə).
Eight is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture because it sounds like the word “prosper”. Dates and times with either a 6 or an 8 have been predominantly chosen as auspicious for important events like the Beijing Olympic Games which started at 08:08:08 p.m. Buddha’s Eightfold Path to Enlightenment is declared to be the way that leads to the end of suffering: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Concentration, Right Mindfulness. Hanukkah is a Jewish festival holiday that lasts eight days and eight nights. The word ‘buffalo’ repeated 8 times: “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” forms a grammatically correct English sentence meaning bison who are intimidated or bullied by bison are themselves intimidating or bullying to bison (at least in the city of Buffalo — implicitly, Buffalo, NY). Buffalo buffalo (main clause subject) [which the] Buffalo buffalo (subordinate clause subject) buffalo (subordinate clause verb) buffalo (main clause verb) Buffalo buffalo (main clause direct object).*
