vuit (Catalan)

Where does "vuit" come from?

The Catalan word 'vuit' traces its roots back to the Proto-Indo-European term *oḱtṓw, which likely functioned as the dual form of a word meaning 'four' to represent two sets of four fingers. This ancient counting concept evolved into the Latin 'octō' before eventually shifting into the modern Catalan form. It shares deep linguistic ancestry with many related number words across Indo-European languages, including English 'eight'.

Full etymology tree

• vuit (Catalan), 'eight'
  • inherited octō (Latin), 'eight; 8'
    • inherited *oktō (Proto-Italic), 'eight'
      • inherited *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European), 'eight'

Ancestors

• octo (Latin)
• *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European)

Updated July 2026

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