sei

Forms

sei (invariable)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian seie, Old Italian sexe and Old Italian siei.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sex (“six”).^[3][4][5][1] Devoto starts from a spoken *sess, whose final ⟨-ss⟩ was replaced by ⟨-i⟩ as in noi, voi and poi beside Latin nōs, vōs and post; the final ⟨-i⟩ kept the vowel from breaking into a diphthong.^[6] DELI likewise speaks of the change of final ⟨-x⟩ to ⟨-i⟩.^[3]

The number is found in every Romance language: French six, Occitan sieis, Catalan sis, Spanish seis, Portuguese seis, Sardinian ses and Romanian șase.^[4][7] The Latin numeral goes back through Proto-Italic *seks to Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs.^[1][8] De Vaan explains the loss of the ⟨*w⟩ in Italic by the analogy of the following numeral, Proto-Italic *septm.^[8] The cognates include Ancient Greek ἕξ (héx), Sanskrit षष् (ṣaṣ), Lithuanian šešì, Old Irish sé and six.^[4][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Bono Giamboni's Vizi e virtù, before 1292.^[3][5] Brunetto Latini's Rettorica speaks of le sei parti of a speech.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Jacopone wrote sie' ale “six wings” and a Perugian document has seie oncie “six ounces”;^[2] Dante has six-winged creatures, ognun era pennuto di sei ali.^[2] Old sayings include d'un danar farne sei, “to make six coins out of one”, of a usurer.^[9] Tiro a sei is a team of six horses.^[10][9]

From the numeral came seicento (late 13th century as secento), in 1955 also the name of a Fiat car, and seimila.^[3][4] In schools sei became the mark of a bare pass, with the diminutive seino.^[11][5] Seigiorni (1942), a six-day cycle race, follows the English six days.^[3] In 19th-century Polari English borrowed the word as say.^[12]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses sei.^[3][5]
• Late 13th century – secento “six hundred” appears in the Novellino.^[3]
• Mid-19th century – Polari say “six” is recorded in English slang.^[12]
• 1942 – sei giorni, the six-day race, is recorded.^[3]
• 1946 – seienne “six years old” appears in the press.^[3]
• 1955 – the Fiat Seicento is presented.^[3]

Meanings

Numeral

1. six: the number after five: sei uova in un cestino.^[5][13][1]
2. After a noun, sixth in a series: capitolo sei.^[5][14]

Noun

1. The number six and the figure 6.^[5][10]
2. The sixth day of a month; the sixth year of a century.^[5][14]
3. le sei: six o'clock.^[5][15]
4. (education) A school mark of six out of ten, the minimum pass.^[5][14][15]
5. (card games) The six of a suit: il sei di fiori.^[5][14]

Word family

• seicento
• seimila
• seienne
• seigiorni
• seino

Related words

• sesto
• Latin sex

Usage notes

Sei is also the second person singular present of essere, tu sei “you are”; the two words are pronounced alike, /ˈsɛi/.^[16] The ordinal is sesto; in compound ordinals -sei- is usually read -seesimo (ventiseesimo), less often -seiesimo.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Canepari, Luciano, DiPI: Dizionario di pronuncia italiana, online ed., dipionline.it