siete

Forms

siete m (plural sietes)^[1] The DEMel records the medieval spellings syete and siet;^[2][3] Aragonese has siet.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin septem (“seven”).^[4][5][6][1] The stressed short /e/ of the Latin word became the diphthong ⟨ie⟩, as in the other Ibero-Romance languages.^[7][8] Lanchetas compares the development of nepta into nieta.^[9] The same Latin word is Portuguese sete, Galician sete, Asturian siete, Aragonese siet, Catalan set, French sept, Italian sette, Sardinian sette and Romanian șapte.^[3][10][1]

The Latin numeral continues Proto-Italic *septm̥, from Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥ (“seven”).^[11][1] Its cognates include Sanskrit सप्त (saptá), Ancient Greek ἑπτά (heptá), Old Church Slavonic седмь (sedmĭ) and Old English seofon, whence English seven.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH's first record is a charter of 1132 in Oelschläger's list; the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has it several times: fizo mio Cid fincar siete tablados “my Cid had seven jousting boards set up”.^{[4][5][12][13]}

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 noted the mysteries drawn from the number seven and the nickname mata siete for braggarts who are really cowards.^[14] Autoridades defined it as a number made of four and three, recorded siete durmientes for a heavy sleeper, after the Seven Sleepers, and siete levar, a stake in the card game of banca.^[15] The Academy listed the card with seven marks in 1817 and the colloquial sense “angular tear in a garment” in 1869; in 1884 it added las siete for the hour.^[16][17][18] The DLE also has a carpenter's clamp shaped like a seven.^[6]

In Colombia, Cuervo noted, siete was a euphemism for sieso “anus”, and the DCECH links to it the Argentine la gran siete “prostitute”.^[4] The DAMER records “anus” in Nicaragua, Cuba, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Argentina and Uruguay, and Malaret gives ¡la gran siete! as an exclamation of Argentina and Chile.^[19][20] Román denied that the sense “anus” existed in Chile.^[21] The first record from the Americas is from Nicaragua in 1527.^[22] Tagalog has borrowed it as siyete.^[1]

Timeline

• 1132 – a charter in Oelschläger's list.^[4][5]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid.^[4][12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario names las siete cabriellas, the Pleiades.^[23]
• 1527 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records mata siete.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records siete durmientes.^[15]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary has the sense “angular tear”.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the sense “seven o'clock”.^[18]

Meanings

Numeral

1. seven: six plus one; also as a pronoun: Éramos siete en la mesa.^[6][1]
2. Seventh, séptimo: la página siete; of the days of the month also as a noun: el siete de marzo.^[6][24]

Noun

1. The natural number after six; the sign or figure 7 that stands for it.^[6]
2. In a pack of cards, each of the four cards with seven pips.^[6]
3. A carpenter's tool for holding work on the bench.^[6][25]
4. (colloquial) An L-shaped tear in clothes or cloth.^[6][1]
5. (vulgar, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Uruguay) The anus.^[6][19]
6. las siete (feminine plural): seven o'clock.^[6]
7. las siete y media: a card game in which the player who reaches seven and a half points, or comes nearest, wins.^[6][25]

Word family

• setecientos
• sietecolores
• sieteenrama

Related words

• semana
• setiembre
• séptimo
• setenta
• septentrión
• heptágono
• Latin septem

Usage notes

Más que siete is a colloquial intensifier, used mostly with hablar, saber or comer: habla más que siete.^[25][26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. siete
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. septem
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 244
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. siete
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. siete
7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 867
8. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. siete
9. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 714
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7830
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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. siete
13. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 446
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1298
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 110
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 801
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 713
18. ^ 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. 975
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. siete
20. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 740
21. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 264
22. ^ a b 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. siete
23. ^ 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. siete
24. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. siete
25. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. siete
26. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1513