Here's some evidence that there were earlier uses: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=secondth%2Chalfth&year_start=1... On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 11:01 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
The earliest instance of a fractional ordinal that I can come up with is the 1953 Warner Brothers cartoon short "*Duck Dodgers* in the 24½th Century". Although from the spelling you'd guess it's pronounced "twenty-four-and-a-halfth", the protagonist pronounces it "twenty-fourth-and-a-half".
(The cartoon also features a memorably nutty form of teleportation.)
Jim Propp
On Friday, April 4, 2014, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
My daughter Eliana will be five-and-a-half tomorrow.
We are wondering: will tomorrow be her five-and-a-halfth birthday, or her fifth-and-a-half birthday?
Jim Propp
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