Number 8
The number 8 is octo in Latin, which puns with acto / acta for “acted”. Enacting hoaxes is what the spooks do all the time, so this is a hoax marker. Because octo & act are often-used Latin loanwords, it even works in modern English.
Latin octo as pun with “acting”
Spookery is ruling by enacting hoaxes. Spooks are actors, acting on the public stage. Latin octo “eight” punning with acto “acted” is therefore a straightforward pun. It even works in English, and can be understood by spooklings who don’t speak Latin.
Pun-wise, the 8 is thus a very good hoax marker. However, in terms of being distinct & unambiguous, all single digits are bad hoax markers, because they occur everywhere randomly. The 8 is therefore often combined with 1 or 11 to aces & eights, which works in Latin & Hebrew.
Latin octo = eight; acta, acto = acted, played, enacted
octō : eight — Latin (Wikt)
āctus; ācta; āctō : made, done, having been done; perfect passive participle of agō (“make, do”). — Latin (Wikt)
agō; āctus; āctum; āctū : do; make; act, play, perform (e.g., a role in a play) — Latin (Wikt)
āctiō : action; a doing or performing, behavior; (drama) the action, plot, series of events — Latin (Wikt)
Semitic eight
In the Semitic languages, the 8 is not such a very straightforward pun. The main problem of finding the right pun-connection is that in the Semitic languages (and Egyptian), the spelling & pronunciation of “eight” starts with a different fricative in each case: š, t, ṯ, s, ḫ.
- Hebrew: שמונה šemōnā → √šmn
- Aramaic: ܬ݁ܡܳܢܶܐ tmānyā → √tmn
- Arabic: ثَمَانِيَة ṯamāniyat → √ṯmn
- Akkadian: 𒐆 samānat → √smn
- Egyptian: 𓐍𓏠𓈖𓐁 ḫemen → √ḫmn
So, while searching for puns, it could be any one among these fricatives. My initial pun-choice was Aramaic tmn “eight”punning with ṭmn “hidden” and t-mn “shape”. Hebrew šmn also puns with zmn “planning” & “plotting”. So far, I haven’t found that pun usage in my text analyses though, so I’ll shelve it for now, in favor of the Latin pun above, of octo with “acting”.
The numerology for aces & eights still works in Hebrew though, because chay “life” puns with chawy “show”.