quince

Forms

quince (cardinal numeral)^[2][1] Old Spanish wrote quinze, quindze, quinçe and quinse.^[1][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish quinze, inherited from Latin quīndecim (“fifteen”).^[4][2][1] The Latin numeral is a compound of quīnque (“five”) and decem (“ten”).^[4][5][6] The Latin word for five goes back to Proto-Italic *kʷenkʷe and Proto-Indo-European *penkʷe (“five”).^[7]

The same Latin word is Galician quince, Portuguese quinze, Catalan quinze, French quinze and Italian quindici.^[8][1][9] The DCVB starts the Catalan form from a variant Vulgar Latin quindĕce.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word in the sense “fifteen”: quinze moros matava de los que alcançava “he killed fifteen Moors of those he overtook”.^[11][4][9] The DEMel lists an earlier quinze in a cartulary of about 1121.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Besides the number itself, quince has long served as an ordinal, above all for the days of the month (el quince de enero) and for numbered years and items.^[2][12] The Diccionario de Autoridades recorded two game senses: a card game in which the aim is to make fifteen points without going over, and, in the ball game, each of the first two points won.^[13][14] The second gave the phrase dar quince y falta “to outdo someone by far”.^[2]

Regional senses include a cup of rum somewhat larger than the usual one in the Canaries, recorded before 1918, and a dice-like game of the Tarahumara in northern Mexico.^[15][16] The Spanish Wiktionary also gives it as a name for a rugby team.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1121 – quinze in a cartulary entry listed by the DEMel.^[3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses quinze.^[11][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has quinze in a recipe of weights.^[18]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives quinze with the Latin quindecim.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as five over ten, Latin quindecim.^[20]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the card game and the point in the ball game.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from quinque and decem.^[12]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Fifteen: ten plus five; also used as a pronoun: Éramos quince en la mesa.^[2][21][1]
2. Fifteenth (decimoquinto); with dates, the fifteenth day of the month: Llegan el quince de mayo.^[2][21]

Noun

1. The number fifteen, and the figure or figures that write it.^[2]
2. (games) In the long-court ball game, each of the first two points won.^[2][21]
3. (games) A card game played like siete y medio, aiming at fifteen points.^[2][21]
4. (Canary Islands) A cup of rum, larger than the usual measure.^[15]

Word family

• quincena
• quincenal
• quinceañero
• quinceavo
• quinceno

Related words

• cinco
• diez
• quindécimo
• Latin quīndecim
• Portuguese quinze

Usage notes

The colloquial phrases dar quince y falta and dar quince y raya mean “to surpass someone greatly”, from the ball game.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. quince
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. quince
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 84
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 587
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. quindecim
7. ^ 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. quīnque
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5358
9. ^ a b 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. 654
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. quinze
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. quince
12. ^ 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. 889
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 470
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. quince
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. quince
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. quince
17. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
18. ^ 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. quince
19. ^ 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. quince
20. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1242
21. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. quince