Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “seventy” come from?

Seventy comes from Middle English sevynty, from Old English hundseofontiġ, from Proto-Germanic sebuntēhundą, a compound meaning seven tens.

seventy (English): The cardinal number occurring after sixty-nine...

Definitions

  1. The cardinal number occurring after sixty-nine...

Ancestry of “seventy”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishseventy—
2Old Englishhundseofontiġ—
3Proto-Germanicsebuntēhundąseventy

Words derived from “seventy”

  • seventyish
  • seventyfold
  • seventi
Every word from Proto-Germanic sebuntēhundą →