nigon (Old English)

Where does "nigon" come from?

The Old English 'nigon' traces its roots back to the ancient Proto-Indo-European number *h₁néwn̥. It evolved through Proto-Germanic as *newun, eventually developing into the variant *nigun due to early sound changes influenced by neighboring numbers like 'ten'. This linguistic journey reflects how foundational concepts like counting have maintained their shape through millennia of language shifts.

Full etymology tree

• nigon (Old English), 'nine'
  • inherited *nigun (Proto-West Germanic)
    • inherited *newunt (Proto-Germanic)
      • derived *newun (Proto-Germanic), 'nine'
        • inherited *neun (Proto-West Germanic), 'nine'
        • inherited *h₁néwn̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'nine'
          • derived *néwos (Proto-Indo-European), 'new'
          • derived *h₁enu- (Proto-Indo-European)
      • influence *tehun (Proto-Germanic), 'ten'

Direct ancestors

• newun (Proto-Germanic)
• h₁néwn̥ (Proto-Indo-European)

Updated July 2026

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris