Secret Origins: 9

Yeah, I felt like doing something easy this week.

As a word, nine comes from the Middle English nin, from the Old English nigon (which would have been pronounced ni-jon or ni-yon). Before that, it was the Proto Germanic newun, and it can be traced to the Proto Indo European newn. Which, you know. Just means nine.

If you look at the numeral, you can see that nine has actually been pretty consistent. Now, as I’ve been saying the last nine times I’ve done this, the numeral system we use originated in India, probably because they had a lot of advances in math in the early centuries of the era—I’m sure in no small part because they were actually the first to have the concept of zero. The 9 looked more like a seven in Brahmi (which is weird because the 7 also looked like that, but at a different angle), but then in Hindu, it has a little loop on it, so it looks like a 9 facing the other direction. Arabic flipped it over and then, yeah, just nine.

So that’s it for the basic numerals, since every other number is made up of some combination of 0-9. But there are still words to look at. I’m sure I’ll get to more of those the next time I’m looking for an easy post.

Damn, first I finished letters, now numbers. What else can I look at?

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

University of Texas at Arlington

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Archimedes Laboratory Project

Secret Origins: 4

More symbols!  Also kind of a short one. I guess that’s fitting considering how long last weeks was.

The word four comes from the Old English feower, which means four of course. Before that it was the Proto Germanic fedwor and Proto Indo European kwetwer. Yes, originally there was no f in four. One theory is that it’s because of the next number (you know, five). I don’t know how. Maybe people looked at the F in five and were like, whoa. I like that.

The symbol’s history is a lot weirder. Even more so than 3! The Medieval version of it looks like a ribbon, while the Arabic version is more like a backwards 3, or sometimes what looks like a bobby pin. Then the Hindu version is an upside down ribbon. And the Brahmi had a plus symbol. When it wasn’t a kind of loop, which at least might be where the upside down ribbon came from.

There’s…not really much else? Sorry. But I would like to point out that for a while there was this post going around that said that the symbols were all based on the number of corners they had (look at this picture for a better idea). It’s total nonsense, especially since most of the symbols aren’t how we really write the numbers. Especially nine. Come on, who puts a spiral at the end of 9 just so it has more angles to it? Who writes them all blocky ever?

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

Archimedes Laboratory Project

Number Dictionary

Origin of the numerals Zero Concept by Ahmed Boucenna, Laboratoire DAC, Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Ferhat Abbas University

Gizmodo

Secret Origins: 3

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

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

Archimedes’ Laboratory

University of Wolverhampton

Secret Origins: Two

More numbers! How fun!

Two the word comes from Old English, where there are actually different versions of it: twa, the feminine form and twegen, the masculine version. Boy, am I glad English lost the gendering of words. It’s annoying enough without it. Both versions come from the Proto Germanic twa, so I guess we know what version is the real version. Before that, it was the Proto Indo European duwo/dwo. Which then gave a ton of other languages their word for two as well.

So that’s the word. What about the character?

There were forms of counting in lots of primitive cultures, but India seems to have been the first place to use a unique symbol to represent a number. The Hindu 2 actually looks remarkably similar to ours—maybe it’s a bit curlier. One theory for why it looks the way it does is that originally it was two dashes (like a = sign) and people writing it started connecting the two bars because it was easier. Think about it. Try writing out a = sign, but don’t take your pen off the surface when you’re moving between the two bars. It looks like a Z, which looks like a 2. Yes, laziness may have given us the symbol.

That wouldn’t surprise me at all.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Old English-English Dictionary

Archimedes Laboratory Project

Vedic Science

Laputan Logic

Secret Origins: One

It’s been a while since we’ve done zero and I figured since we’ve just had a month of words, why not a number?

One is an ancient number, perhaps the oldest recorded one. A bone found in the Congo from twenty thousand years ago has notches that indicate counting by ones. One itself has had some interesting forms over the centuries. The Greeks actually used α'. Seriously, an alpha with a quote mark. It was also a curvy Arabic line, the Roman Numeral I, a single dot for the Mayans, a — in Chinese, and a kind of squished N in Hebrew. Most of those make sense as they’re just single lines or dots, and apparently Greek numbers used to be just the letters of their alphabet with a quote mark at the end (their 2 for example is β').

The 1 that we use however is first recorded India in the fourth century CE, but had actually been in use for quite a while before that. It moved through the Arabic world, which changed and modified all of the Indian number symbols. One was a — in ancient India, but a 1 in Arabic, and believe me, it’s the least changed. You’ll see when we eventually get to the other numbers. Anyway, from there the numeral system spread across northern Africa, entering Europe by way of Spain.

Now for the word. One showed up in the early thirteenth century from the Old English an, one or single, and is also the origin for an. And a for that matter. The article, not the letter (yes, they’re really separate things). Seriously. Anyway! Before Old English, it was the Proto Germanic ainaz and earlier, the Proto Indo European oi-no-, one or unique. So because one is single, it is one. Okay. Sure.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Old English-English Dictionary

The Number Dictionary

Vedic Science