Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word setenta

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Cantigas de Santa Maria, spelt setaenta More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin septuaginta
Ultimate origin
Latin septuāgintā
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Portuguese setenta
Spanish setenta
English septuagint

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /seˈtẽ.tɐ/[1]
  • Portugal: /sɨˈtẽ.tɐ/[1]

Forms

setenta m or f[1] The medieval forms are setaenta (13th century), seteenta and sateenta (14th) and setenta (15th).[2][3][4] The registers of Noia also write seteẽta, sateẽta and once setpenta.[5] Bluteau and Folqman also give the spelling settenta.[6][7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin septuāgintā (“seventy”), written Old Galician-Portuguese setaenta in the oldest texts.[2][4][1] Nascentes and the Aurélio start from a Vulgar Latin *setaginta and trace it through the old forms Old Galician-Portuguese sateenta and Old Galician-Portuguese satenta.[8][9] The OLD records the spelling ⟨septaginta⟩ in a Latin inscription.[10]

The same Latin word is Galician setenta, Spanish setenta, Catalan setanta, Italian settanta and Old French setante.[11][12][1] Old Spanish also had setaenta.[12]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *septm̥̄ḱomt, from earlier *septḿ̥-dḱomt (“seven-ten”).[1] According to de Vaan, as Wiktionary reports, the ⟨ā⟩ came in from other tens such as sexāgintā (“sixty”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology gives three 13th-century records: a line of the Cantigas de Santa Maria (no. 112) about a ship that had run de millas setaenta, “seventy miles”, and a charter from Portel of 1275 with setaenta e cinqui “seventy-five”.[3] A charter of 1332 dates by the era de mill et CCCos seteenta.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense of the number seventy throughout.[2][3] In dates and sums, such as the Noia registers' era de mjll et quatroçentos et setenta et seys anos, the old forms gave way to setenta in the 15th century.[5][2] As a noun it names the figure 70 and the seventieth item of a series, and a versão dos Setenta is the Greek translation of the Old Testament made at Alexandria, the Septuagint.[2][13][14]

Timeline

  • 13th century – setaenta in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[3][2]
  • 1275 – setaenta e cinqui in a charter from Portel.[3]
  • 1332 – seteenta in a charter.[3]
  • 14th century – the form sateenta.[2]
  • 1341 – setpenta in a register of Noia.[5]
  • 1476 – setenta in a register of Noia.[5]
  • 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists Setenta.[15]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads the word settenta.[6]
  • 1789 – Morais defines it as seven tens.[16]

Meanings

Numeral

  1. seventy, sixty plus ten: A minha avó fez setenta anos.[2][17][1]
  2. (after a noun) The seventieth in a series: a página setenta.[2]

Noun

  1. The number seventy, and the figure 70 that writes it.[2][17]
  2. os Setenta: the translators of the Septuagint;[13][14] a versão dos Setenta, the Septuagint itself.[13][14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. setenta
  3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. setaenta
  4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. setenta
  5. ^ a b c d 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. setenta
  6. ^ 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. setenta
  7. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. setenta
  8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. setenta
  9. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. setenta
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. septuāgintā
  11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  12. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. septuaginta
  13. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. setenta
  14. ^ a b c 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. setenta
  15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. setenta
  16. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 399
  17. ^ 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. setenta

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Setenta.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/setenta. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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