Etymologically
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cinq

Etymology and origin of the French word cinq

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1100, Chanson de Roland (cinc)
Inherited from
Latin cinque via Old French
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*pénkʷe)

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Belgium, France): /sɛ̃k/[1]
  • IPA: /sɛ̃ᵑk/[1]
  • IPA: /sẽᵑk/[1]
  • IPA (Canada): /sẽk/[1]

Forms

cinq (invariable)[1] Old French cinc, Picard has chinq and chonq.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cinc, inherited from Vulgar Latin cīnque, a form found in inscriptions, in which the first /kw/ of classical Latin quīnque (“five”) was changed by dissimilation.[4][5][2][6][7] The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe, through Proto-Italic *kʷenkʷe;[1] Rey notes that in Italic and Celtic the initial /p/ was assimilated to the inner /kʷ/, as in Old Irish cóic, while Ancient Greek πέντε (pénte) and Sanskrit पञ्च (páñca) keep it.[2]

Cognate with Italian cinque, Romanian cinci, Occitan cinc, Catalan cinc, Spanish cinco and Portuguese cinco.[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

As cinc it is found about 1100 in the Chanson de Roland, as the cardinal number: Mieux en vaut l'orl que ne font cinc cenz livres (“its hem is worth more than five hundred pounds”).[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The numeral became a noun for the figure 5 (1690, Furetière) and for the number, and the Académie recorded it in 1694 for a card, die or domino marked with five pips.[4][2] It has been used as an ordinal (Charles cinq, le cinq juin) since 1835.[4][2]

Cinq à sept (1833) named a meeting between five and seven in the evening, often a romantic one.[2] En cinq sec first meant winning a card game in five straight points, then “very quickly”: Rey dates the game sense to 1875 and the general one to 1888, while the TLFi dates “quickly” to 1875 in Labiche.[2][4] The derived ordinal cinquième took the place of Old French quint, which survives only in Charles Quint.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – Cinc in the Chanson de Roland.[4]
  • 1165–1170 – The ordinal cinquième is formed from it.[2]
  • 1690 – Furetière uses it as a noun for the figure.[4]
  • 1694 – The Académie records it for the number and for a card or die marked with five.[4]
  • 1833 – Cinq à sept, an evening meeting.[2]
  • 1835 – The Académie records its use as an ordinal.[4]
  • 1875 – En cinq sec in Labiche.[4]

Meanings

Numeral

  1. five: les cinq doigts de la main.[8][9]
  2. Fifth, in dates, page numbers and the names of rulers: page cinq, Charles V.[9][10]

Noun

  1. The number or figure five; the fifth day of a month, a house number five.[9][8]
  2. A playing card or domino marked with five pips.[9]
  3. (familiar) En cinq sec: very quickly.[9][10]
  4. Cinq sur cinq: (of a radio or telephone message) heard perfectly.[9]
  5. (euphemism) Le mot de cinq lettres, les cinq lettres: merde.[9][8]

Word family

  • cinquième

Usage notes

Before a plural noun beginning with a consonant the final /k/ is usually dropped (cinq cents [sɛ̃sɑ̃]); it is pronounced elsewhere (le cinq janvier, cinq abeilles) and, in familiar speech, often before consonants too.[4][8]

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1480a
  8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  10. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Cinq.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/cinq. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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