8

'8' is the pseudo-shorthand/homophone form of "nosy" in Chinese, specifically Cantonese and Mandarin. It is pronounced "bât", where the â would be pronounced as if you were yawning. Incidentally, that is also the pronounciation of the number '8' in Cantonese (in Mandarin, it'd be simply "ba"). This is oftenly seen in ICQ, IRC or E-Mail conversations.

It means "nosy" in the bad sense, and is connotatively attributed to old women or impolite people. It can be employed by and directed to both female or male.

A popular expression is "bât por", which literally translates to "nosy old lady", but means "bitch."

In Mandarin, a popular expression would be "38" pronounced "sam-ba", whose meaning I'm not really sure how to explain, but it's a mixture of nosy, impolite and stupid.

'8' is also a homophone for "prosperity" in Cantonese (I'm not sure about Mandarin), so many Cantonese peoples will use this number in their phone numbers, addresses, license plates or on anything that will bring them good luck. In such cases, it will oftenly be preceded by '9' as '9' is a homophone for "infinity" or "long" (as in long time). The last two digits of my phone number happen to be 98 ;)

In gematriah, or Hebrew numerology, eight represents the letter chet, the eigth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Chet is pronounced with a guttural tone on the 'ch', a property not found in the English language.