What better way to start off the new year than with the
history of a number?
Shut up. It’s fun.
As a word, three comes from the Old English Þreo/Þri/Þrie and since Þ is just “th”,
that makes them threo, thri, and thrie. Why so many? Because of course we had
to have a feminine version and two different masculine versions. Anyway, all
those versions of three come from the Proto Germanic thrijiz, and even earlier the Proto Indo European trei-. So this word really hasn’t changed that much.
The symbol of course has its own story. All the numerals we
use in the English language originated in India before Arabic countries picked them up and then spread them through the
European countries that we get our language from. 3 itself has changed over the centuries, sometimes jagged, other times written
on its side with a huge tail.
Basically, there were a lot of different versions of 3 over the years, and for
some reason one stuck around when the others didn’t. Because that’s always how
it is.
Sources
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
So where do we get triple and trinity?
ReplyDeleteAs they say, three is a magic number.
ReplyDeleteThe variations in the look of 3 are odd!
ReplyDeleteA masculine and feminine version? I thought numbers were gender neutral.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I got nothing.
ReplyDelete