dieciséis

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish dizeseis, a compound from Old Spanish diez (“ten”) + e (“and”) + seis (“six”), “ten and six”.^[1][2] Nebrija already has the form with ⟨y⟩, but Corominas notes that the analytic form is much older.^[2] It replaced the older seze, recorded in Berceo and in a document of northern Castile of 1269, which continued Latin sēdecim (“sixteen”).^[2][1] García de Diego also lists the old forms sedze and sece.^[3]

The Latin numeral survives in Catalan setze, French seize and Italian sedici, and in all the Romance languages except Portuguese.^[2][1] Portuguese dezesseis and Galician dezaseis are compounds of the same kind as the Spanish word.^[1][4] The Latin numeral itself is formed from sex (“six”) and decem (“ten”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record in a contemporary manuscript is a grant of a fuero of 1256, which exempts the young fasta que sean de hedat de dizeseis annos “until they are sixteen years old”.^[6] In the same year Alfonso X's Picatrix has en dizeseys dias menos seys horas “in sixteen days less six hours”.^[7][6] The Bocados de oro, dated before 1250 but known from a 15th-century copy, has diez e seis virtudes “sixteen virtues”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish wrote the compound in several ways: dizeseis, dizeseys, diziseys and diez e seys.^[6] Early records from the Americas spell it deziséis (1515) and desiséis (1556).^[8]

Besides the cardinal number it serves as an ordinal, as in año dieciséis and for the days of the month, and in the feminine plural it names the fourth hour after noon.^[9] Moliner gives the old sece as a synonym.^[10] In Honduras el dieciséis is a game of pool with sixteen balls, and un dieciséis a small amount of something.^[11] It was borrowed as Tagalog disiseis.^[1]

Timeline

• before 1250 – diez e seis in the Bocados de oro (in a 15th-century copy).^[6]
• 1256 – dizeseis in a grant of a fuero, and dizeseys in Alfonso X's Picatrix.^[6][7]
• 1269 – the older seze in a document from northern Castile.^[2]
• 1270–1284 – diziseys in Alfonso X's Estoria de España.^[6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives diez y seis, Latin sedecim.^[12][13]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme: deziséis marchos de perlas.^[8]

Meanings

Numeral

1. sixteen: ten plus six; also used as a pronoun: Compré dieciséis sillas.^[9][1]
2. sixteenth: as an ordinal after a noun, and for the days of the month: Nos vemos el dieciséis de mayo.^[9][14]

Noun

1. The number sixteen, and the figure that represents it.^[9]
2. (feminine plural) Four o'clock in the afternoon: El tren sale a las dieciséis.^[9]
3. (Honduras) A game of pool played with sixteen balls.^[11]

Related words

• diez
• seis
• Latin sēdecim
• Catalan setze
• Portuguese dezesseis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 493
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sedecim
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. dezesseis
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
7. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. dieciséis
8. ^ a b 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. dieciséis
9. ^ a b c d e 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. dieciséis
10. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. dieciséis
11. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. dieciséis
12. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv
13. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. diez
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. dieciséis