un (Galician)
Where does "un" come from?
The Galician article 'un' descends from the Latin word 'ūnus', meaning 'one' or 'single'. This Latin term traces back further to the Proto-Indo-European root '*h₁óynos', which serves as the common ancestor for words meaning 'one' across many languages, including the English words 'one' and 'an'.
Full etymology tree
- un (Galician), 'a, an (before vowel and silent h), one'
- inherited un (Old Galician-Portuguese), 'alternative form of ũu'
- inherited ūnus (Latin), 'one, single'
- inherited oinos (Latin), 'one'
- inherited *oinos (Proto-Italic), 'one'
- inherited *h₁óynos (Proto-Indo-European), 'one'
- derived *éy (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *h₁óynos (Proto-Indo-European), 'one'
- inherited *oinos (Proto-Italic), 'one'
- inherited oinos (Latin), 'one'
- inherited ūnus (Latin), 'one, single'
- inherited un (Old Galician-Portuguese), 'alternative form of ũu'
Ancestors
- un (Old Galician-Portuguese)
- unus (Latin)
Descendants and derived words
- cun (Galician)
- cunha (Galician)
- cunhas (Galician)
- cuns (Galician)
- dun (Galician)
- dunha (Galician)
- dunhas (Galician)
- duns (Galician)
- nun (Galician)
- nun (Galician)
- nunha (Galician)
- nunhas (Galician)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris