Etymologically
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five

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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.
  • 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