tien (Dutch)
Where does "tien" come from?
The Dutch word "tien" descends from the ancient Proto-Indo-European root "déḱm̥," meaning ten. It traveled through Proto-Germanic and Proto-West Germanic stages as "*tehun" before evolving into its Old and Middle Dutch iterations. This progression highlights the remarkable endurance of basic numbering systems across thousands of years of linguistic history.
Full etymology tree
- tien (Dutch), 'ten'
- inherited tien (Middle Dutch), 'ten'
- inherited tēn (Old Dutch)
- inherited *tehun (Proto-West Germanic), 'ten'
- inherited *tehun (Proto-Germanic), 'ten'
- derived *déḱm̥ (Proto-Indo-European), 'ten'
- derived *tehunt (Proto-Germanic)
- derived *déḱm̥t (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *tehun (Proto-Germanic), 'ten'
- inherited *tehun (Proto-West Germanic), 'ten'
- inherited tēn (Old Dutch)
- inherited tien (Middle Dutch), 'ten'
Ancestors
- tien (Middle Dutch)
- *tehun (Proto-West Germanic)
- *tehun (Proto-Germanic)
- *déḱm̥ (Proto-Indo-European)
Descendants and derived words
- tien (Afrikaans)
- tiener (Dutch)
- tienling (Dutch)
- tiental (Dutch)
- tîn (Jersey Dutch)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris