eahta (Old English)
Where does "eahta" come from?
The Old English word 'eahta' descends from the ancient Proto-Indo-European root *oḱtṓw, reflecting a long shared history across diverse language families. It moved through Proto-Germanic and Proto-West Germanic stages, resulting in a number that has remained remarkably stable in form over millennia. Its linguistic relatives include the Latin 'octo', Greek 'oktṓ', and Sanskrit 'aṣṭa', all of which stem from this same ancient ancestral term for the number eight.
Full etymology tree
- eahta (Old English), 'eight'
- inherited *ahtō (Proto-West Germanic), 'eight'
- inherited *ahtōu (Proto-Germanic), 'eight'
- inherited *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European), 'eight'
- inherited *ahtōu (Proto-Germanic), 'eight'
- inherited *ahtō (Proto-West Germanic), 'eight'
Ancestors
- *ahtō (Proto-West Germanic)
- *ahtōu (Proto-Germanic)
- *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European)
Cognates and doublets
- tetë (Albanian)
- ὀκτώ (Ancient Greek)
- 𐌰𐌷𐍄𐌰𐌿 (Gothic)
- octo (Latin)
- осмь (Old Church Slavonic)
- ahto (Old High German)
- ocht (Old Irish)
- átta (Old Norse)
- ahto (Old Saxon)
- अष्ट (Sanskrit)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris