setenta

Forms

setenta (invariable)^[2] Old Spanish wrote setaenta, setahenta and setanta beside setenta.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish setaenta, inherited from Latin septuāgintā (“seventy”).^[5][6][1] Gómez de Silva starts from Vulgar Latin septaginta, a spelling the OLD finds in an inscription.^[7][8]

The same Latin numeral is Portuguese setenta, Galician setenta, Catalan setanta, Occitan setanta, Italian settanta and French septante, the last from Old French setante with its ⟨p⟩ restored after Latin.^[9][4][10]

The Latin numeral belongs with septem (“seven”).^[11] De Vaan derives it from a compound “seven-ten”: the ⟨ā⟩ came from the other tens, and the ⟨u⟩ arose by regular sound change.^[11] Wiktionary gives Proto-Indo-European *septm̥̄ḱomt and compares Ancient Greek ἑβδομήκοντα (hebdomḗkonta).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is setaenta in a charter of 1209 from Oelschläger's list.^[5][6] DEMel cites an Aragonese setanta from 1186, in the documents of El Pilar.^[3] The CDH's earliest hit is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), on weaving: aya setenta et VIII cuerdas “let it have seventy-eight cords”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as the number containing seven tens and gave a separate article to the Seventy translators of the Bible.^[13] Autoridades treated it as a masculine noun, from Latin septuaginta;^[14] Terreros noted that French used septante only of the Seventy translators and of Daniel's seventy weeks.^[15][14] The Academy's 1884 edition gave the ordinal use and the noun for the figure.^[16] Los Setenta still names the translators of the Septuaginta, and hasta setenta veces siete, from Matthew, is said of unlimited forgiveness.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 1186 – an Aragonese setanta in the documents of El Pilar, according to DEMel.^[3]
• 1209 – setaenta in a Castilian charter;^[19] Corominas's first record.^[5][6]
• 1218–c. 1250 – setenta in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[12]
• 1256 – Alfonso X's Picatrix still writes setaenta.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives numerus septuagenarius.^[19]
• 1546 – first record in the Americas, as septenta in Santo Domingo.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias writes on the Seventy translators.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy records setentón “seventy years old”.^[21]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the ordinal use and the etymology.^[16]

Meanings

Numeral

1. seventy; seven times ten, also used as a pronoun: Compramos setenta sillas para la boda.^[2][1]
2. seventieth, used after a noun: la página setenta.^[2]

Noun

1. The number seventy, the natural number after sixty-nine.^[2]
2. The figure or figures that write the number seventy.^[2]
3. Los Setenta: the translators of the Septuagint.^[17][13]

Word family

• setentón
• setentavo

Related words

• siete
• septuagésimo
• septuagenario
• Septuaginta
• Latin septuāgintā

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. setenta
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 244
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. siete
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. septante
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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. setenta
13. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1296
14. ^ a b 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. 3, 482
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 105
16. ^ 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. 973
17. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1565
18. ^ 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. 741
19. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 416
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 800