four (English)

Where does "four" come from?

The English word 'four' traces its ancestry back through Middle English 'four' and Old English 'fēower'[1]. This descends from Proto-West Germanic '*feuwar' and Proto-Germanic '*fedwōr', which ultimately originated from the Proto-Indo-European form '*kʷetwṓr' or '*kʷetwóres'[1]. It shares deep roots with many other language families, appearing as 'quattuor' in Latin, 'quatro' in Spanish, and 'catur' in Sanskrit[4].

Open questions

The Proto-Germanic form experienced an irregular consonant change from the expected outcome, likely influenced by the word for five. [4]
Proto-Indo-European reconstructions suggest the root may derive from an earlier elemental base due to morpheme structure constraints. [6]

Full etymology tree

four (English), 'A numerical value equal to 4; the number after three and before five; two plus two. This many dots (••••)'
- inherited four (Middle English), 'four'
  - inherited feower (Old English), 'four'
    - inherited *feuwar (Proto-West Germanic), 'four'
      - inherited *fedwōr (Proto-Germanic), 'four'
        inherited *petwṓr (Pre-Germanic)
        inherited *kʷetwṓr (Proto-Indo-European)
        derived *kʷetwóres (Proto-Indo-European), 'four'

Ancestors

four (Middle English)
feower (Old English)
*feuwar (Proto-West Germanic)
*fedwōr (Proto-Germanic)

Cognates and doublets

katër (Albanian)
τέσσαρες (Ancient Greek)
չորս (Armenian)
fire (Danish)
vier (Dutch)
cuatro (English)
quatre (English)
quatre (French)
vier (German)
veer (German Low German)
𐍆𐌹𐌳𐍅𐍉𐍂 (Gothic)
ceathair (Irish)

Descendants and derived words

fo (Bislama)
all fours (English)
all-fours (English)
all-run four (English)
back four (English)
be lost to the four winds (English)
between you and me and these four walls (English)
boundary four (English)
chaise and four (English)
clue by four (English)
clue-by-four (English)
coach and four (English)

Sources

Updated August 2026

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