ocho

Forms

ocho (invariable numeral); as a noun, ocho m (plural ochos)^[1] Medieval records also have the spellings hocho and octo and the forms vuecho and hueyto.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ocho, inherited from Latin octō (“eight”).^[3][4][1] Wiktionary reconstructs an earlier form *oito between the Latin and the Old Spanish word.^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese oito, Galician oito, Aragonese ueito, Catalan vuit, French huit, Italian otto and Romanian opt.^[5][6][1]

The Latin word continues Proto-Italic *oktō.^[7][1] Wiktionary gives the Indo-European form as Proto-Indo-European *oḱtṓw, while de Vaan writes *h₃(e)ḱtéh₃.^[1][7] It is cognate with Ancient Greek ὀκτώ (oktṓ), Sanskrit अष्ट (aṣṭa), Gothic 𐌰𐌷𐍄𐌰𐌿 (ahtau) and Old English eahta, the source of the English word eight.^[1][7] Rubenbauer and Hofmann see in it an old dual, “twice four fingertips”, from counting in fours.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to 1220–1250.^[3] DEMel has an earlier one, from the Mozarabic documents of Toledo of 1187.^[2] One of the first texts in a manuscript of its own time is the Semejanza del mundo of about 1223, which divides the winds into four cardinal ones and „los otros ocho” “the other eight”, the collateral winds.^[8] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes sets the pound of meat at „quarenta et ocho onças” “forty-eight ounces”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defines ocho as the number made by multiplying four by two, and also records a Sevillian measure, the quarter of a cuartillo of wine, and the phrase dar con los ochos y nueves “to tell someone all one's complaints against him”.^[9] In the Quijote it appears in pieça de a ocho, a coin of eight reales.^[10] Terreros records ocho as the name of several figures of the contradance.^[11]

The Academy's 1843 dictionary adds the ordinal use in dates, the figure 8 and the card with eight pips; its 1884 edition gives the etymology and the hour, las ocho.^[12][13] The shape of the figure gives further senses: Moliner records un ocho tendido for the lemniscate.^[14] In Mexico and El Salvador ocho is a sweet bread shaped like an eight, in the Río de la Plata a step of the tango, in Chile a turn in the cueca, and in Honduras and El Salvador a vulgar word for the anus.^[15]

Timeline

• 1187 – the Mozarabic documents of Toledo have the word.^[2]
• 1220–1250 – the first record Corominas gives.^[3]
• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo speaks of the eight collateral winds.^[8]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario mentions „ocho letras”.^[16]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin numerus octonarius.^[17]
• 1535 – the first record from the Americas, in Santa Marta.^[18]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “eight”.^[19]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary adds the ordinal use, the figure and the playing card.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the hour las ocho.^[13]

Meanings

Numeral

1. eight: seven plus one: Somos ocho en casa.^[4][1]
2. eighth, in a series and in dates: Llegamos el día ocho.^[4][20]

Noun

1. The number eight; the figure 8.^[4][1]
2. A playing card with eight pips.^[4]
3. (in the feminine plural, las ocho) Eight o'clock.^[4]
4. A figure-of-eight shape, knot or movement, such as a figure in the tango.^[1][15][14]
5. (Seville) A quarter of a cuartillo of wine.^[4][9]
6. (Honduras, El Salvador, vulgar) The anus.^[15][1]

Word family

• ochocientos
• dieciocho

Related words

• ochavo
• ochenta
• octavo
• octubre
• Latin octo
• Portuguese oito

Usage notes

Dar igual ocho que ochenta means “not to care either way”, and más chulo que un ocho “very cocky”.^[14][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ocho
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ocho
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ocho
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. octo
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 513
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. ocho
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 15
10. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 801
11. ^ 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. 2, 692
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 507
13. ^ 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. 753
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ocho
15. ^ 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. ocho
16. ^ 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. ocho
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 388
18. ^ 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. ocho
19. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 179
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. ocho