Where does “c'est combien” come from?
c'est combien (French) comes from French c’est, from French cé, from Spanish éste, from Latin iste, from Latin hāc, from Latin hīc, from Latin heic, from Latin hic — whale, sea monster; abyss.
Ancestry of “c'est combien”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | French | c’est | — |
| 2 | French | cé | The name of the Latin-script letter C |
| 3 | Spanish | éste | this one |
| 4 | Latin | iste | that ; those; that one ; that ; those ones ;... |
| 5 | Latin | hāc | — |
| 6 | Latin | hīc | — |
| 7 | Latin | heic | — |
| 8 | Latin | hic | this; these; this one; this ; these ones ; these... |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | hek(e) | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | gʰi-ḱe | this, here |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 12 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 13 | Russian | кит | whale; genitive plural of ки́та |
| 14 | Old Church Slavonic | китъ | whale |
| 15 | Ancient Greek | κῆτος | whale, sea monster; abyss |