five

Pronunciation

• IPA: /faɪv/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English five, inherited from Old English fīf,^[2][3] the modern form continuing the inflected Old English fīfe,^[4] from Proto-Germanic *fimfi or *fimfe,^[4][3][2] whose m was lost in Old English, Old Frisian and Old Saxon by a regular change, as in tooth.^[2][3] Its Germanic cognates are Old Frisian fīf, Old Saxon fīf, Dutch vijf, Old High German fimf (modern German fünf), Old Norse fimm, and Gothic has fimf.^[3][5] It comes from Proto-Indo-European *penkʷe (“five”),^[2][3][6] which also gave Latin quīnque, Ancient Greek πέντε (pénte), Old Irish cóic, Welsh pump and Lithuanian penki.^[3][7][4] In Latin and Old Irish the first consonant was assimilated to the second.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The number one more than four: Old English fīf, recorded about 1000;^[3][2] Middle English five appears before 1175.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Besides the number, five came to name a card or domino with five pips (1674),^[8] a five-pound note (1836),^[8] and a hit for five runs in cricket (1859).^[8] The game fives, a kind of handball, takes its name from the plural.^[7][9] The American five-and-ten (1880) named a shop selling goods at five and ten cents.^[2] A five-star hotel is from 1913 and a five-star general from 1945;^[2] the first five-year plan was Soviet, of 1928, and five o'clock shadow is attested by 1937.^[2] The slang five-finger discount “theft” is from 1966.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English fīf.^[3]
• before 1175 – five.^[3]
• 1674 – a card or domino with five pips.^[8]
• 1836 – a five-pound note.^[8]
• 1880 – five-and-ten.^[2]
• 1913 – five-star, of hotels.^[2]
• 1928 – five-year plan.^[2]
• 1937 – five o'clock shadow.^[2]
• 1966 – five-finger discount.^[2]

Modern meaning

Numeral

1. The cardinal number equal to four plus one (5).

Noun

1. The fifth in a set or sequence.
2. A group of five, such as a basketball team.
3. A five-dollar or five-pound note.
4. (fives) A form of handball played chiefly at British schools.

Related words

• fifth
• fifteen
• fifty
• quinque-
• penta-
• punch
• finger

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin