six (Old English)
Where does "six" come from?
The word 'six' traces its origins back to the Proto-Indo-European root *swéḱs. It evolved through Proto-Germanic and Proto-West Germanic as *sehs, eventually settling into its modern English form while retaining its distinct numerical identity across millennia.
Full etymology tree
- six (Old English), 'six'
- inherited *sehs (Proto-West Germanic), 'six'
- inherited *sehs (Proto-Germanic), 'six'
- derived *swehs (Proto-Germanic)
- derived *swéḱs (Proto-Indo-European), 'six'
- derived *wéḱs (Proto-Indo-European)
- derived *swéḱs (Proto-Indo-European), 'six'
- derived *swehs (Proto-Germanic)
- inherited *sehs (Proto-Germanic), 'six'
- inherited *sehs (Proto-West Germanic), 'six'
Direct ancestors
- sehs (Proto-West Germanic)
- sehs (Proto-West Germanic)
- sehs (Proto-Germanic)
- swéḱs (Proto-Indo-European)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris