cinco

Forms

cinco m or f^[1] Houaiss records the spellings synqy (1269), cinque (13th century), çico and çinqo (14th century).^[2] The cantigas also have cinquo.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin cinque (“five”), the Vulgar Latin form of Classical quīnque, written Old Galician-Portuguese cinque and Old Galician-Portuguese cinco in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5][1] The Vulgar Latin form dissimilated the first of the two /kʷ/ sounds; it is frequent in Latin inscriptions of the Christian era.^[2][6][7] Houaiss and Nascentes explain the final -o by the influence of quatro, the number before it.^[2][6] Corominas thinks a regular sound change possible too, but finds the influence of the word for "four" likely, given parallels in other languages such as the Gothic word for "four", reshaped after the word for "five".^[7] The old form in -e is still found in Portuguese texts of the late 14th century and about 1400.^[7][6]

The same Latin word is Galician cinco, Spanish cinco, Catalan cinc, French cinq, Italian cinque and Romanian cinci.^[8][1] The Spanish word is recorded from 1090.^[7]

The Latin numeral goes back to Proto-Italic *kʷenkʷe and Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe (“five”), whose /p/ was assimilated to the /kʷ/ of the next syllable.^[9][1] Its cognates include πέντε (pénte), पञ्च (páñca) and 𐍆𐌹𐌼𐍆 (fimf).^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is from 1269, spelt synqy, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria write cinco beside cinque and cinquo, as in cinco soldos e mealla "five shillings and a halfpenny" (cantiga 178).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The numeral has kept its meaning; as a noun it is the figure 5, the card, die face or domino with five spots, and a mark of five in an examination.^[2][5][11] Morais (1813) records dar cincos "to blunder", the same as dar cincas.^[12] Cunha dates cinca "a loss in a ball game; a mistake" to the 17th century and cincar "to blunder" to 1813.^[12][4] The word passed into the Portuguese-based creoles as Kabuverdianu sinku, Papiamentu sinku, Sãotomense chinku and Kristang singku.^[1]

Timeline

• 1269 – first record, spelt synqy.^[2]
• 13th century – cinque and cinco in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the spellings çico and çinqo.^[2]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo, the first CTA text with the word.^[13]
• 16th century – the coin cinquinho, worth five réis, under John III.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it as Latin quinque.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais records dar cincos "to blunder".^[12]

Meanings

Numeral

1. five: four plus one (5, V).^[2][5][1]
2. Fifth in a series: o capítulo cinco.^[2][15]

Noun

1. The number five; the figure 5.^[2][5][1]
2. A card, die face or domino with five spots.^[5][15]
3. A mark of five in an examination.^[5][11]

Word family

• cinca
• cincar
• cincada
• cinquinho

Related words

• quinto
• quinze
• cinquenta
• Latin quīnque
• Spanish cinco

Usage notes

Michaelis and Priberam also record a noun cinco, a kind of lizard, the skink.^[15][16] Michaelis derives it from Latin scincus.^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cinco
3. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. cinco
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cinco
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. cinco
6. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 118
7. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 84
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6964
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. quīnque
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. quinque
11. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cinco
12. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 397
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cinco
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cinco
15. ^ a b c d Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. cinco
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cinco