acht (German)

Where does "acht" come from?

The German word 'acht' traces its roots back to the ancient Proto-Indo-European term *oḱtṓw. It evolved through Proto-Germanic and Old High German before settling into its modern form. This number is a linguistic sibling to 'eight' in English and 'octo' in Latin, reflecting a shared heritage that spans thousands of years of language history.

Full etymology tree

• acht (German), 'eight (numerical value represented by the Arabic numeral 8; or describing a set with eight elements)'
  • inherited ahte (Middle High German)
    • inherited ahto (Old High German), 'eight'
      • inherited *ahtō (Proto-West Germanic), 'eight'
        • inherited *ahtōu (Proto-Germanic), 'eight'
          • inherited *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European), 'eight'
            • derived *(H)oḱto- (Proto-Indo-European)

Ancestors

• ahto (Old High German)
• *ahtō (Proto-West Germanic)
• *ahtōu (Proto-Germanic)
• *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

• otte (Danish)
• acht (Dutch)
• eight (English)
• οκτώ (Greek)
• octo (Latin)
• åtta (Swedish)

Descendants and derived words

• Acht (German)
• Acht (German)
• Acht (German)
• Acht (German)
• Achteck (German)
• achtfach (German)
• achtmal (German)
• achtstündig (German)
• achttägig (German)

Updated July 2026

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