Etymology

penta-

Today it means: Five. Full definition →

Ancient Greek πεντᾰ- ← Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pénkʷe
  2. Ancient Greek · learned borrowing fromπεντᾰ-“five”
  3. English todaypenta-

PIE word *pénkʷe Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe Proto-Hellenic *pénkʷe Ancient Greek πέντε (pénte) Ancient Greek πεντᾰ- (pentă-)lbor. English penta- Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πεντᾰ- (pentă-, “five”), from πέντε (pénte, “five”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe. Compare Persian پنج, Northern Kurdish pênc, Ossetian фондз (fonʒ), Pashto پنځه (pindzə), Sanskrit पञ्च (páñca). Doublet of five, which was inherited from Proto-Germanic.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*pénkʷe all →

fivePentecostquinesarpanchquin-

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.