ἑπτά

Forms

ἑπτᾰ́ (heptá) (ordinal ἕβδομος, adverbial ἑπτάκις)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *heptə́, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥ (“seven”), the Indo-European word for “seven”.^[1][2][3][4] Frisk explains the accent on the last syllable as taken over from Proto-Indo-European *oḱtṓw (“eight”).^[4] Hesychius records a dialect form τεπτά (teptá), which LSJ reads as the same word written with a letter for /h/.^[5]

Cognate with Sanskrit सप्त (saptá), Latin septem, Old Armenian եաւթն (eawtʻn), Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌱𐌿𐌽 (sibun) and Old English seofon, all meaning “seven”.^[1][3][4][6]

The ordinal ἕβδομος (hébdomos) is harder to explain: Chantraine traces it to an old form Proto-Indo-European *sebdmos, perhaps from *septmos with voicing, while Szemerényi starts from the word for “seventy”, ἑβδομήκοντα (hebdomḗkonta).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, meaning “seven”, both with a noun and on its own, and with another numeral in “seven and ten”, seventeen.^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

As the first part of compounds it formed ἑπτακαίδεκα (heptakaídeka) “seventeen”, ἑπτακόσιοι (heptakósioi) “seven hundred” and many possessive adjectives, from Homer's ἑπταβόειος (heptabóeios) “of seven ox-hides” on.^[3][2] Its derivatives include the adverb ἑπτάκις (heptákis) “seven times”, first in Pindar, and the noun ἑπτάς (heptás) “group of seven”, used by Aristotle of days and years.^[2][3][4]

Seven was a number with mystical weight, discussed by Aristotle, and “the Seven” became the name of several fixed groups: the Seven Sages, the seven heroes who attacked Thebes, the Seven Wonders, a board of magistrates at Olbia and, in Dio Cassius, the Roman septemviri epulones.^[5][8][9] In the New Testament the Book of Revelation is built on sevens (seven churches, lampstands, seals, trumpets and bowls), and Acts calls the seven officials of the Jerusalem church “the Seven”.^[8] The word was also borrowed into rabbinic Hebrew.^[8]

Medieval Greek developed the form εφτά (eftá), with /pt/ becoming /ft/, which is the everyday Modern Greek word beside learned επτά (eptá).^[10][11][12] English uses it in the combining form hepta-.^[13]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the number seven.^[7][5]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses the derived adverb ἑπτάκις (heptákis) “seven times”.^[2][14]
• 5th–4th century BC – Isocrates calls the Seven Sages “the seven sophists”.^[5][14]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle discusses seven as a mystical number.^[5][14]
• 3rd century BC – An inscription from Olbia names a board of magistrates “the Seven”.^[5]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo calls the Seven Wonders “the seven sights”.^[5][14]
• 1st century AD – Acts calls the seven chosen officials of the church in Jerusalem “the Seven”.^[8]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Dio Cassius uses “the seven men” for the Roman septemviri epulones.^[5][14]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek has both επτά (eptá) and the new form εφτά (eftá).^[11]
• Modern Greek – The numeral is εφτά (eftá), with the learned επτά (eptá) beside it.^[10][12]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Seven.^[5][15][7]
2. Seven as a mystical or sacred number.^[5][8]
3. (with the article, οἱ ἑπτά) “The Seven”: the Seven Sages; the seven heroes against Thebes; a board of magistrates at Olbia; the seven officials of the church in Acts.^[5][8][9]
4. (τὰ ἑπτὰ θεάματα) The Seven Wonders of the world.^[5]

Word family

• ἑπτακαίδεκα (heptakaídeka)
• ἑπτακόσιοι (heptakósioi)
• ἑπταβόειος (heptabóeios)
• ἑπτάκις (heptákis)
• ἑπτάς (heptás)
• ἕπταχα (héptakha)

Related words

• ἕβδομος (hébdomos)
• ἑβδομήκοντα (hebdomḗkonta)
• Latin septem
• English seven

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d e f Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
9. ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
15. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press