septm̥mós (Proto-Indo-European)
Where does "septm̥mós" come from?
The word stems from the Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥mós, which combined the root for 'seven' with a possessive suffix to mean 'seventh.' This ancestral root for 'seven' may have originated as a 'culture word' shared through ancient contact between early Indo-European and Proto-Semitic speakers. This linguistic exchange highlights how fundamental terms for counting traveled through early civilizations, potentially tracing back to even older roots in Proto-Afroasiatic.
Full etymology tree
- *septm̥mós (Proto-Indo-European), 'seventh'
- compound *septḿ̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'seven'
- borrowed *šabʕ- (Proto-Semitic), 'seven'
- derived *sṗɣ (Proto-Afroasiatic)
- borrowed *šabʕ- (Proto-Semitic), 'seven'
- suffix *-ós (Proto-Indo-European), 'Forms possessive adjectives from nouns.'
- compound *septḿ̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'seven'
Ancestors
- *septḿ̥ (Proto-Indo-European)
- *-ós (Proto-Indo-European)
Updated June 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris