septiņi (Latvian)

Where does "septiņi" come from?

The Latvian word "septiņi" descends from the Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥, which is the common ancestor for "seven" across many languages, including the Latin "septem," English "seven," and Sanskrit "saptá." It evolved through a Proto-Balto-Slavic form and was later assimilated into the Latvian noun system. This ancient linguistic root highlights the deep, shared numerical vocabulary that connects most of the Indo-European language family.

Full etymology tree

• septiņi (Latvian), 'seven (the cipher, the cardinal number seven)'
  • inherited *septín (Proto-Balto-Slavic), 'seven'
    • inherited *septḿ̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'seven'
      • borrowed *šabʕ- (Proto-Semitic), 'seven'
      • influence *šwid- (Proto-Kartvelian), 'seven'
      • influence šittanna (Hurrian)

Cognates and doublets

• ἑπτά (Ancient Greek)
• сем (Belarusian)
• седем (Bulgarian)
• sedm (Czech)
• seven (English)
• sieben (German)
• 𐍃𐌹𐌱𐌿𐌽 (Gothic)
• septem (Latin)
• septyni (Lithuanian)
• седмь (Old Church Slavonic)
• seofon (Old English)
• sibun (Old High German)

Updated July 2026

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