åtta (Swedish)

Where does "åtta" come from?

The Swedish number word 'åtta', meaning 'eight'[1], descends through a long chain of northern European languages. It comes from Old Swedish 'ātta' or 'āta'[1], which itself derives from Old Norse 'átta'[1]. This Old Norse form traces back to Proto-Germanic '*ahtōu'[1], and further still to the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed form '*oḱtṓw'[1], which means 'eight'[4].

Open questions

• The Proto-Indo-European form is formally a dual of a stem meaning four fingers, though this etymological connection remains a reconstructed historical hypothesis. [3]

Full etymology tree

• åtta (Swedish), 'eight'
  • inherited atta (Old Swedish), 'eight'
    • inherited átta (Old Norse), 'eight'
      • inherited *ahtōu (Proto-Germanic), 'eight'
        • inherited *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European), 'eight'

Ancestors

• átta (Old Norse)
• *ahtōu (Proto-Germanic)
• *oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

• otte (Danish)
• átta (Icelandic)

Sources

1. åtta (Swedish) - Wiktionary
2. átta (Old Norse) - Wiktionary
3. oḱtṓw (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
4. ahtōu (Proto-Germanic) - Wiktionary
5. atta (Old Swedish) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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