viginti

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [wiːˈɡɪn.tiː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [viˈd͡ʒin.ti]^[1]

Forms

vīgintī (indeclinable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *wīkentī, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dwi-dḱm̥t-ih₁ (“two tens”), an old dual.^[2][3][1] The voiced /g/ is unexpected, and Kortlandt explains it from voicing after a nasal in the words for seventy and ninety, spread to the other tens.^[2] Cognate with Ancient Greek εἴκοσι (eíkosi, “twenty”), Doric Ancient Greek ϝίκατι (wíkati), Sanskrit विंशति (viṃśatí, “twenty”), Avestan 𐬬𐬍𐬯𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (vīsaiti, “twenty”) and Old Irish fiche (“twenty”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from the Twelve Tables.^[2][4] Plautus speaks of “twenty minae of silver”.^[5] Köbler dates the Twelve Tables to about 450 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is the indeclinable number twenty, written XX.^[6] Its ordinal is vīcēsimus and its distributive vīcēnī.^[1]

In medieval Britain it also stood for a score in counting by twenties.^[7] It survives in Italian venti, French vingt, Spanish veinte and Portuguese vinte, and English borrowed Italian venti.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – it is used in the Twelve Tables.^[2][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus speaks of twenty minae.^[5][4]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Twenty.^[3]
2. (Medieval Latin) A score.^[7]

Related words

• centum
• decem
• duo

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press