oitenta

Forms

oitenta m or f^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote oitaenta, otaenta, oyteenta, oyteẽta, octeenta, oyteinta and oytenta.^[2][3][4] The 15th century also has outenta.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin octāgintā (“eighty”), a variant of classical octōgintā.^[2][1][5] García de Diego starts from a form octuāgintā shaped on septuāgintā (“seventy”), and Houaiss's oldest record, from 991, shows the same vowel.^[6][2] Nascentes traces the modern form through Old Galician-Portuguese oitaenta and Old Galician-Portuguese oyteenta, whose two vowels were later contracted.^[5][2]

The same Latin word is Galician oitenta, Spanish ochenta, Catalan vuitanta, Italian ottanta and Old French oitante.^[7][1][8]

The Latin number is formed on octō (“eight”).^[9][10] Wiktionary takes it from Proto-Indo-European *oktōḱomt, from earlier “eight-ten”, and compares Ancient Greek ὀγδοήκοντα (ogdoḗkonta).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's earliest date, 991, is oituainta in a Latin charter.^[2][4] In Galician-Portuguese the word first appears in the Cantigas de Santa Maria as oitaenta, in a line about a man who had run setaenta ou oitaenta “seventy or eighty” miles.^[11][2]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has not changed: medieval chronicles and charters use the word mostly in dates and counts of troops and ships, often written in Roman figures (LXXX).^[3] The contracted form oitenta is found from the 14th century, and Galician notarial documents still alternate oyteenta and oytenta in the 1480s.^[4] Bluteau defines it as “four times twenty”.^[12]

Timeline

• 991 – oituainta in a Latin charter.^[2]
• 13th century – oitaenta and oyteenta in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[11][2]
• 1297 – the form oyteinta.^[4]
• 1326 – oytenta in a Galician document from Ribas de Sil.^[4]
• 1342 – oyteenta in a notarial document from Noia.^[4]
• 14th century – the spellings octeenta and oyteta.^[2]
• 15th century – first record of the spelling oitenta, beside outenta.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses oitenta with Latin octuaginta.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as four times twenty.^[12]

Meanings

Numeral

1. eighty, the number after seventy-nine: A avó fez oitenta anos.^[2][14][1]
2. eightieth, used after a noun: a página oitenta.^[2][14]

Noun

1. The number eighty, or its figure, 80.^[2][15]
2. The person or thing in eightieth place in a series.^[14][16]
3. (Brazil, entomology, feminine) The borboleta-oitenta, a butterfly.^[2]

Related words

• oito
• octogésimo
• octogenário
• Latin octōgintā
• Galician oitenta
• Spanish ochenta

Usage notes

The popular phrase ou oito ou oitenta “either eight or eighty” means “all or nothing”, a warning against going to extremes.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. oitenta
3. ^ a b 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. oyteenta
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. oytenta
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. oitenta
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. octoginta
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6037
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. octante
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. octōgintā
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b 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. oitaenta
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. oitenta
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. oitenta
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. oitenta
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6655
16. ^ 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. oitenta
17. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. oitenta