atta (Old Swedish)

Where does "atta" come from?

The Old Swedish numeral 'atta'[1], meaning 'eight'[1], descends through Old Norse 'átta'[1] from the Proto-Germanic form '*ahtōu'[1]. This Germanic term traces further back to the Proto-Indo-European root '*oḱtṓw'[1], which is formally analyzed as the dual of a stem meaning 'four fingers'[3].

Open questions

• The Proto-Indo-European form is reconstructed as a dual stem related to four fingers. [3]

Full etymology tree

• atta (Old Swedish), 'eight'
  • inherited átta (Old Norse), 'eight'
    • inherited *ahtōu (Proto-Germanic), 'eight'
      • inherited *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European), 'eight'

Ancestors

• átta (Old Norse)
• *ahtōu (Proto-Germanic)
• *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European)

Descendants and derived words

• åtta (Swedish)
• åtta (Swedish)

Sources

1. atta (Old Swedish) - Wiktionary
2. átta (Old Norse) - Wiktionary
3. oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
4. ahtōu (Proto-Germanic) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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