cinco (Spanish)

Where does "cinco" come from?

The Spanish word "cinco" traces its roots back to the ancient Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe, meaning "five." As it traveled through Latin as "quīnque" and settled into Vulgar Latin as "cīnque," it eventually evolved into the Old Spanish "çinco" before reaching its modern form.

Full etymology tree

• cinco (Spanish), 'five'
  • inherited çinco (Old Spanish)
    • inherited cīnque (Latin), 'alternative form of quīnque (with dissimilation of /kʷ–kʷ/ to /k–kʷ/)'
      • inherited quīnque (Latin), 'five; 5'
        • inherited *kʷenkʷe (Proto-Italic), 'five'
          • inherited *pénkʷe (Proto-Indo-European), 'five'

Ancestors

• cinque (Latin)
• quinque (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

• ponche (Spanish)
• ponzu (Spanish)

Descendants and derived words

• singko (Cebuano)
• singko (Ilocano)
• singko (Tagalog)
• singko (Tagalog)
• singko (Tagalog)

Updated July 2026

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