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The term comes from cricket, in which the time one team is at bat is called an "innings," plural. So does that mean when they talk about multiple "innings" in cricket, they say "inningses"? Well, one post on Sportsfilter.com states, "The word 'innings' is used to indicate both the singular and the plural in all versions of English except American English, in which the singular has evolved into the word 'inning.'" A quick dictionary search bears this out. But do they have a seventh-innings stretch in cricket? No.
They do, however, take a 20-minute tea break between the last two "sessions." (No kidding, they do.) But the term itself actual predates cricket. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the word comes from the old English "innung," meaning "a taking in, a putting in." The e-zine Take Our Word for It notes "inning" is the past participle of the old English verb "to in," meaning "to put in, take in, enclose, or include." Thus, "innings" is the period of time a team or player is "in" or "in play." Finally, Wikipedia points out that in British
English, "innings" is also a term for "almost any activity which takes a period of time." As in: "Ask Yahoo! had a good innings when they explained the origin of 'inning.'" Hope springs eternal.
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