noventa

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish novaenta, inherited from Vulgar Latin *nōvāgintā, an alteration of Latin nōnāgintā (“ninety”) under the influence of novem (“nine”).^[2][3][1][4] The Latin /g/ between vowels was lost, and the two vowels then merged in the modern form.^[5][4] Old Spanish also had nonaenta, closer to the Latin, and nouenta.^[4][6]

The Latin word is Portuguese noventa, Galician noventa, Asturian noventa, Catalan noranta, Occitan nonanta, French nonante and Italian novanta.^[7][4][8] García de Diego explains the Catalan ⟨r⟩ by the influence of coranta (“forty”).^[4] Catalan also has novanta.^[4] Old Portuguese had novaenta and noveenta.^[9]

The Latin numeral is formed from the word for “nine” and the suffix -ginta (“tens”), and goes back to an earlier *nūnāgintā, Proto-Italic *nounāgəmtā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥dḱomt (“nine tens”).^[10][1] Its Greek cognate is Ancient Greek ἐνενήκοντα (enenḗkonta).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word 1251.^[2] The CDH's first hits are the Fuero Juzgo (c. 1250–1260), where a fine of nouaenta soldos is set, and a royal privilege for Seville dated 1251, en era de mill e dozientos e nouenta e vn anno.^[11] DEMel cites nonaenta from the Romance confirmation, of 1252–1284, of the Latin fuero of Valle de Fenar.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the forms novaenta and noventa stood side by side in dated documents, as in the Cortes of Alcalá de Henares of 1252, en era de mill e cc e novaenta annos.^[11] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 gives noventa for Latin nonaginta and builds the related forms on it.^[12] The Academy defined it in 1817 as the number made by multiplying ten by nine.^[13] From 1884 it listed it as an adjective, as the ordinal (año noventa) and as the sign for the number.^[14] The learned nonagésimo and nonagenario come straight from Latin, while noventón “someone in their nineties” is formed on noventa.^[15][2]

Timeline

• 1251 – a royal privilege for Seville has nouenta.^[11][2]
• c. 1250–1260 – the Fuero Juzgo has nouaenta.^[11]
• 1252 – the Cortes of Alcalá de Henares and other documents of the same year have novaenta.^[11]
• 1252–1284 – the Romance confirmation of the fuero of Valle de Fenar has nonaenta.^[6]
• 1492 – Nebrija gives noventa for Latin nonaginta.^[12]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses noventa as English “ninetie”.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the ordinal use and the sense “the figure 90”.^[14]

Meanings

Numeral

1. ninety: nine times ten; also as a pronoun: Vinieron noventa invitados.^[3][1]
2. ninetieth (nonagésimo), after a noun: la página noventa.^[3][17]

Noun

1. The natural number after eighty-nine.^[3]
2. The sign or signs that write the number ninety: 90, XC.^[3][17]

Word family

• noventón

Related words

• nueve
• nonagésimo
• nonagenario
• Latin nonaginta

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nueve
3. ^ 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. noventa
4. ^ a b c d e f García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4613
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. noventa
6. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. noventa
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. nonaginta
8. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. noventa
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. noventa
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. noventa
12. ^ a b 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, p. s.v. noventa
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 603
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 744
15. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 490
16. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 179
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. noventa