wyth (Welsh)
Where does "wyth" come from?
The Welsh word 'wyth,' meaning eight, shares a deep ancestry with many Indo-European number systems, tracing back to the Proto-Indo-European root *oḱtṓw. It evolved through Proto-Celtic *oxtū into Proto-Brythonic *üiθ before eventually arriving in Welsh. Interestingly, the ancient root is believed to have originally described a grouping related to the breadth of four fingers on each hand.
Full etymology tree
- wyth (Welsh), 'eight'
- inherited *üiθ (Proto-Brythonic), 'eight'
- inherited *oxtū (Proto-Celtic), 'eight'
- inherited *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European), 'eight'
- inherited *oxtū (Proto-Celtic), 'eight'
- inherited *üiθ (Proto-Brythonic), 'eight'
Ancestors
- *üiθ (Proto-Brythonic)
- *oxtū (Proto-Celtic)
- *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European)
Cognates and doublets
- eth (Cornish)
Descendants and derived words
- wythnos (Welsh)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris