octo

Forms

octō (indeclinable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *oktō (“eight”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃(e)ḱtéh₃ (“eight”).^[2] Cognate with Old Irish ocht (“eight”), Welsh wyth (“eight”), Sanskrit अष्टौ (aṣṭáu, “eight”), Ancient Greek ὀκτώ (oktṓ, “eight”), Lithuanian aštuonì (“eight”) and Gothic 𐌰𐌷𐍄𐌰𐌿 (ahtau, “eight”).^[2][1][3] Wiktionary reports the view of Rubenbauer and Hofmann that the form looks like an old dual.^[1] The ordinal octāvus (“eighth”) seems to show a change of ⟨*-ōwos⟩ to ⟨*-āwos⟩, which Schrijver explains as a loss of rounding before the following ⟨u⟩.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus;^[2] Köbler gives Ennius, whose Annals have mīlia mīlitum octō, “eight thousand soldiers”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is the plain cardinal number eight, as in Caesar's “eight miles” and Cicero's “a hundred and eight years”.^[5][3] The OLD notes that the final vowel was probably long at first, as ⟨octōnī⟩ and ⟨October⟩ suggest, but no certain example shows it, and later poets such as Manilius treat it as short;^[3] the TLL finds the long vowel in verse only from Arator.^[6]

Köbler finds it in the Bible, councils, charters and the barbarian law codes.^[4] Church Latin keeps it as “eight”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[2][4]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of eight thousand soldiers.^[5][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of eight miles.^[5][4]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Eight.^[3][5][1][7]

Word family

• octangulus
• octanus
• octennis
• octennium
• octiens
• octingēnī
• octingentī
• octipēs
• octiplicō
• octōiugis
• octominutalis
• octōnus
• octāvus
• octōgintā
• octōnārius

Related words

• novem
• septem
• English eight
• English October

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson