seis

Forms

seis m or f^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese also wrote seys and the Latinising sex, and Houaiss records sseys in the 14th century.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sex (“six”), written Old Galician-Portuguese seis and Old Galician-Portuguese seys in the oldest texts.^[3][2][1] Latin pronounced the word /seks/; in Portuguese the velar /k/ of the group /ks/ was vocalised to the glide /j/, which gives the diphthong /ej/ of the modern word.^[3]

The same Latin word is Galician seis, Spanish seis, Catalan sis, French six, Italian sei and Romanian șase.^[1][4][5]

The Latin word goes back to *seks, from *swéḱs.^[6][1] Its cognates include ἕξ (héx), षष् (ṣaṣ) and the English word six.^[1] De Vaan writes the reconstruction with the initial /s/ in brackets, since some languages point to a form beginning /sw-/ and others to one beginning /w-/.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1249, from a text in the collection of old laws he cites as Leges.^[3] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the second half of the 13th century a miracle happens a cabo de seis dias “after six days”, and the Galician Crónica Troiana speaks of the six ages of the world (as seis ydades).^[7]

Semantic evolution

The numeral has kept its meaning; what grew was its use as a noun.^[3] Bluteau (1712–1728) still glosses it only as the Latin numeral, with compounds such as seiscentos “six hundred” and seis mil.^[8] The original Caldas Aulete adds the noun: the digit 6, and the card, die face or domino tile with six spots, noting that as a noun it can be used in the plural.^[9] Modern dictionaries also use it for the sixth item of a series and for a mark of six in an examination.^[3][10]

The word passed into the Portuguese-based creoles: sais in Kabuverdianu, sês in Macanese and seis in Papiamentu.^[1]

Timeline

• 1249 – Houaiss's first record, from the Leges.^[3]
• 13th century – seis in the Cantigas de Santa Maria;^[7][2] Cunha also records sex in this century.^[7][2]
• 14th century – the spellings seys and sseys.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – seis in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[11]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary renders Seis by Latin sex.^[12]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau lists seiscentos, seis mil and seis vezes.^[8]
• 1881 – the original Caldas Aulete gives the noun senses of the digit and of the card or die face.^[9]

Meanings

Numeral

1. six, five plus one: Comprou seis laranjas.^[3][13][1]
2. sixth, after a noun, the sixth of a series: a página seis.^[3][14]

Noun

1. The number six, and the digit 6.^[3][15][1]
2. A playing card, die face or domino tile with six spots: o seis de copas.^[10][13]
3. A mark of six in an examination or assessment.^[10]

Word family

• seisavo

Related words

• seiscentos
• sexto
• sexta
• sexagésimo
• sexteto
• Latin sex
• Galician seis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. seis
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. seis
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 192
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. six
6. ^ a b 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. sex
7. ^ 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. seis
8. ^ 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. seis
9. ^ a b 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. seis
10. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. seis
11. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. seis
12. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. seis
13. ^ a b 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. seis
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. seis
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8370