Exploring the etymologies of numbers (Part 2)

The etymology of numbers, we saw last week, is another reminder that we all once spoke the same language a mere 5000 years ago: not so far back in time when looking at the history of mankind as a whole. We also saw that the naming of numbers is typically based not on profound matters, but rather on mundane things that everyone can relate to.

An example of this was the English term ‘four’. It was evidently derived from how we typically bend or ‘hide’ the thumb when displaying the number with our hand. We thus related fidwor, the Gothic root of ‘four’, to fithoga (‘unhide’), and also feower – the Old English evolution of the term (as well as its Old High German equivalent, fior) – to fihoga (‘bring to light’). As for quattuor, the Latin term for ‘four’, we related it to gatoga (‘uncover [by removing a weight that was on top]’). Since, in all cases, the thumb was ‘hidden’ or ‘bent as if weight was put on it’, we might surmise that these were knowing injunctions to ‘stop hiding or bending that thumb’!

The ‘hand’ theme carries into the Setswana term tlhano (‘five’ – but literally meaning ‘reveal the inside or other side of’, as in tlhanoga). What is now ‘revealed’? The thumb. With thumb extended, the whole hand unfolds as if ready to give out something. This sense, it seems clear, is what the Latin quinque and the French cinq (both meaning ‘five’) sought to convey. Their originally pronunciation, it seems, was “ke-nke?” (literally: “can I [now] take?” in Setswana). The unfolded hand, of course, appears ready to ‘give’ or ‘take’. Ostensibly, the German term fünf originally pronounced ‘fana-fii’ (an expression loosely meaning ‘give out freely’) and indeed, the sense of ‘giving out’ is maintained in the Old English version fif, and the Dutch term vijf (also pronounced ‘fif’ as: they relate very well to fii-fa! – an alternative rendering of ‘give out [freely]’.

Editor's Comment
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