cuatro

Forms

cuatro (invariable numeral); as a noun, cuatro m (plural cuatros)^[1] Old Spanish wrote quatro, also quoatro and coatro.^[2] Aragonese has cuatre and catre.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quattŭor (“four”), through Old Spanish quatro.^[4][5][6][1] The DCECH notes that the only correct Latin form had ⟨tt⟩.^[4] Gómez de Silva gives the Vulgar Latin forms quatro and quattor.^[7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese quatro, Catalan quatre, Occitan quatre, French quatre, Italian quattro and Romanian patru.^[8][3]

The Latin numeral goes back to Proto-Italic *kʷettwōr and Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres.^[1][9] Its cognates include Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares) and Old English fēower, the source of English four.^[1][9] Wiktionary notes that the Latin ⟨a⟩ for an expected ⟨e⟩ is unexplained.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH dates the word to a charter of 1090 from Oelschläger's list.^[4][5] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has it when the Cid promises the abbot four marks for the monastery for every one he spends.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Besides the number, cuatro is used for an indefinite small quantity (cuatro palabras “a few words”) and for the fourth in a series, as in dates.^[6] The Diccionario de Autoridades, under the spelling quatro, recorded the person who holds the vote of four others in a council, a composition sung in four voices, and the cant sense “horse”, taken from Juan Hidalgo's vocabulary.^[11] Terreros and the Academy's 1817 edition spell it cuatro.^[12][13]

In Venezuela, Colombia, Puerto Rico and other countries the cuatro is a small guitar, with four strings in most countries and five double strings in Puerto Rico.^[14][15][16] Alemany recorded the Venezuelan instrument in 1917.^[14][15][16] English borrowed the name of the instrument as cuatro.^[1]

Timeline

• 1090 – first record, in a charter.^[4][5]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has cuatro.^[10]
• 1187 – first record of catorce.^[5]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum writes quatro fillas “four daughters”.^[10]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[17]
• 1729 – first record of cuatralbo, a horse with four white feet.^[5]
• 1817 – the Academy spells the word cuatro.^[13]
• 1917 – Alemany records the Venezuelan four-stringed guitar.^[16]

Meanings

Numeral

1. four: three plus one: Tengo cuatro sobrinos.^[6][1]
2. A few, a small number: Solo vinieron cuatro gatos.^[6][18]
3. Fourth in a series; of the days of the month, also as a noun: el cuatro de mayo.^[6]

Noun

1. The number four, and the sign that represents it.^[6]
2. A card, die or domino with four marks.^[6]
3. A composition sung in four voices.^[6][11]
4. (Venezuela, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Bolivia) A small guitar, with four strings, or in Puerto Rico five double strings.^[14][15][1]

Word family

• cuatrocientos
• cuatralbo
• cuatrillón

Related words

• catorce
• cuarto
• cuarenta
• Latin quattuor
• Portuguese quatro

Usage notes

Más de cuatro means “quite a few people”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cuatro
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5340
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 261
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuatro
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cuatro
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 204
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. quattuor
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. quattuor
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cuatro
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 456
12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 566
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 259
14. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cuatro
15. ^ a b c Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. cuatro
16. ^ a b c Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 487
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. cuatro
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuatro