four

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*kʷetwṓr
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*fedwōr
3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*feuwar
4. Old English · inherited fromfēower
5. Middle English · inherited fromfour
6. English todayfour

PIE word *kʷetwóres Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr Proto-Germanic *fedwōr Proto-West Germanic *feuwar Old English fēower Middle English four English four From Middle English four, from Old English fēower, from Proto-West Germanic *feuwar, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from previous pre-Grimm *petwṓr, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr, the neuter form of *kʷetwóres. Doublet of cuatro and quatre. Cognates include Scots fower, Saterland Frisian fjauer, West Frisian fjouwer, Dutch vier, German Low German veer, German vier, Norwegian Bokmål and Danish fire, Swedish fyra, Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌳𐍅𐍉𐍂 (fidwōr) and, more distantly, Latin quattuor (whence Spanish cuatro, French quatre), Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares), Irish ceathair, Welsh pedwar, Armenian չորս (čʻors), Lithuanian keturi, Albanian katër, Sanskrit चतुर् (catur).

Words from the same roots