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'

Direct ancestors

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

Updated July 2026

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