um (Portuguese)
Where does "um" come from?
The Portuguese word 'um' traces its origins back to the Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos, meaning 'one'. It evolved through Proto-Italic and Latin as 'ūnum' before passing into Old Galician-Portuguese as 'ũu'. Eventually, this word simplified into the modern Portuguese 'um', a term that remains a direct linguistic sibling to the English word 'one'.
Full etymology tree
- um (Portuguese), 'one'
- inherited ũu (Old Galician-Portuguese), 'Masculine singular indefinite article; a; an.'
- inherited ūnum (Latin), 'inflection of ūnus:'
- derived ūnus (Latin), 'one, single'
- inherited oinos (Latin), 'one'
- inherited *oinos (Proto-Italic), 'one'
- inherited *h₁óynos (Proto-Indo-European), 'one'
- derived *éy- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *h₁óynos (Proto-Indo-European), 'one'
- inherited *oinos (Proto-Italic), 'one'
- inherited oinos (Latin), 'one'
- derived ūnus (Latin), 'one, single'
- inherited ūnum (Latin), 'inflection of ūnus:'
- inherited ũu (Old Galician-Portuguese), 'Masculine singular indefinite article; a; an.'
Ancestors
- ũu (Old Galician-Portuguese)
- unus (Latin)
- *oinos (Proto-Italic)
- *h₁óynos (Proto-Indo-European)
Cognates and doublets
- uno (Portuguese)
Descendants and derived words
- um (Indo-Portuguese)
- un (Kabuverdianu)
- un (Kabuverdianu)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris