sesenta

Forms

sesenta (numeral; also a masculine noun)^[2] Old Spanish wrote sessaenta, sesaenta, sexaenta, seseenta and sessenta before the modern sesenta prevailed.^[3][4] Old Aragonese texts have sixanta and sissanta, as in Catalan.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish sessaenta (“sixty”), inherited from Latin sexāgintā (“sixty”).^[5][2][1] The Old Spanish form kept the two vowels of the Latin ending in hiatus once the /g/ had been lost, and they were later reduced to one.^[3][6][3]

The same Latin numeral is Portuguese sessenta, Galician sesenta, Catalan seixanta, French soixante and Italian sessanta.^[7][3] French went through a shortened sexanta, as the DHLF explains.^[8]

The Latin numeral is formed from sex (“six”) and the ending of the tens.^[9][9][10] Wiktionary traces it to *sweḱsḱomt, from an earlier *swéḱs-dḱomt (“six-ten”), and compares Ancient Greek ἑξήκοντα (hexḗkonta).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the old form: the Cid entered Burgos with sessaenta pendones, “sixty pennons”, in his company.^[11][5] Corominas also cites a charter of 1186 and the modern spelling sesenta in the Fuero de Guadalajara of 1219.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X still wrote sessaenta in his Lapidario (about 1250–1279), which speaks of 360 stones.^[12] Nebrija wrote sesenta throughout, and the Academy from 1817 also listed it as an ordinal, capítulo sesenta, and as a masculine noun for the figure.^[5][13][14] Derived from it are sesentón “a person in his sixties” and sesentavo “one sixtieth”.^[5][15][16]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – sessaenta pendones in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[11][5]
• 1186 – a charter in Oelschläger's list has the word.^[5]
• 1219 – the modern spelling sesenta in the Fuero de Guadalajara.^[5][16]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija writes sesenta throughout.^[5]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the number of six tens.^[17]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary adds the ordinal use and the noun for the figure.^[14]

Meanings

Numeral

1. sixty, six times ten; also used as a pronoun: Llegaron sesenta invitados.^[2][1]
2. sixtieth, in a numbered series: el capítulo sesenta.^[2][18]

Noun

1. The number sixty, the natural number after fifty-nine.^[2]
2. The figure or signs that write sixty, 60 or LX.^[2][19]

Word family

• sesentón
• sesentavo

Related words

• seis
• sexagésimo
• Latin sexāgintā
• Portuguese sessenta

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. sesenta
3. ^ a b c d e García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 6105
4. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sesenta
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 192
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. sesenta
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. sexaginta
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. soixante
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sexāgintā
10. ^ 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. sex
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. sesenta
12. ^ 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. sesenta
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 416
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 799
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 972
16. ^ 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. 756
17. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1296
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sesenta
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sesenta