kvin (Esperanto)

Where does "kvin" come from?

The Esperanto word 'kvin' descends directly from the Latin 'quīnque', meaning five. This ancestor traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root '*pénkʷe', a term likely linked to ancient concepts of the hand or fist. Through millennia of shifts across Italic and Latin, it continues to serve as the foundational word for the number five in various languages today.

Full etymology tree

• kvin (Esperanto), 'five'
  • inherited quinque (Latin), 'five; 5'
    • inherited *kʷenkʷe (Proto-Italic), 'five'
      • inherited *pénkʷe (Proto-Indo-European), 'five'
        • derived *penkʷ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'fist ?'

Ancestors

• quinque (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

• keno (Esperanto)
• Pompejo (Esperanto)
• punĉo (Esperanto)

Descendants and derived words

• kvina (Esperanto)
• kvinangulo (Esperanto)
• kvinlatero (Esperanto)
• kvino (Esperanto)
• kvinono (Esperanto)

Updated July 2026

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