septem (Latin)

Where does "septem" come from?

The Latin word 'septem' traces its roots back to the Proto-Italic *septəm. It is a linguistic sibling to many ancient terms across the Indo-European language family, including the Sanskrit 'saptá', Ancient Greek 'heptá', and the ancestor of the modern English 'seven'.

Full etymology tree

• septem (Latin), 'seven; 7'
  • inherited *septəm (Proto-Italic), 'seven'
    • inherited *septḿ̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'seven'

Cognates and doublets

• ἑπτά (Ancient Greek)
• seofon (Old English)
• सप्त (Sanskrit)

Descendants and derived words

• September (Latin)
• September (Latin)
• septemplex (Latin)
• septuplus (Latin)

Updated July 2026

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