seacht (Irish)
Where does "seacht" come from?
The Irish word 'seacht' for seven traces its ancient roots back to the Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥. From there, it evolved into the Proto-Celtic *sextam before being inherited by Old Irish as 'secht'. Interestingly, this foundational number may have originally functioned as a prehistoric 'culture word,' reflecting deep-seated contact between early Indo-European and Semitic peoples.
Full etymology tree
- seacht (Irish), 'seven'
- inherited secht (Old Irish), 'seven'
- inherited *sextam (Proto-Celtic), 'seven'
- inherited *septḿ̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'seven'
- borrowed *šabʕ- (Proto-Semitic), 'seven'
- derived *sṗɣ (Proto-Afroasiatic)
- borrowed *šabʕ- (Proto-Semitic), 'seven'
- inherited *septḿ̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'seven'
- inherited *sextam (Proto-Celtic), 'seven'
- inherited secht (Old Irish), 'seven'
Ancestors
- secht (Old Irish)
- *sextam (Proto-Celtic)
- *septḿ̥ (Proto-Indo-European)
Descendants and derived words
- seachtar (Irish)
- seachtar (Irish)
- seachtú (Irish)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris