Etymology

number

num·ber
N1U1M3B3E1R1

Today it means: Quantity of countable things. Full definition →

Middle English nombre ← Anglo-Norman noumbre ← Latin numerus
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number · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*nem-
  2. Proto-Italic*nomezos
  3. Latinnumerus
  4. Anglo-Normannoumbre
  5. Middle Englishnombre
  6. English todaynumber

Inherited from Middle English number, nombre, numbre, noumbre, from Anglo-Norman noumbre, Old French nombre, from Latin numerus (“number”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to distribute, to give, to take”). Compare Saterland Frisian Nummer, Nuumer, West Frisian nûmer, Dutch nummer (“number”), German Nummer (“number”), Danish nummer (“number”), Swedish nummer (“number”), Icelandic númer (“number”). Displaced Middle English ȝetæl and rime; more at tell, tale and rhyme. Distantly related (via Proto-Indo-European) to obsolete English nim (“to take, seize”) and its Germanic cognates (e.g. German nehmen), hence also to numb.

number · adjective2

From numb (adjective) + -er.

number · noun3

Equivalent to numb (verb) + -er

Words from the same roots

Latinnumerus all →

numeracynumero-

Proto-Indo-European*nem- all →

economiceconomicsnaamnimantinomynummular

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.