Etymograph

English

number

Number comes from Anglo-Norman noumbre, from Latin numerus ‘number’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nem- ‘to distribute; to give, take’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*nem-1‘to distribute; to give, take’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*nomezos1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnumerus1‘number’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400noumbre1
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500number1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1610number1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English number
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1610, The Bible: That Is: “From twentie yeare old and above, all that go…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*nem-Wiktionary, English number‘to distribute; to give, take’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*nomezosWiktionary, English numberreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnumerusWiktionary, English number‘number’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400noumbreWiktionary, English number
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500numberWiktionary, English number
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1610numberWiktionary, English number. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1610, The Bible: That Is: “From twentie yeare old and above, all that go…”

The story

Distantly related (via Proto-Indo-European) to obsolete English nim (‘to take, seize’) and its Germanic cognates.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with number, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *nem- ‘to distribute, to give, to take’

  • nomadic ← νομαδικός
  • nomad ← nomade ← Nomas ← νομάς
  • nim ← nimen ← niman ← *neman ← *nemaną
  • nome ← νομός ← νέμω ← *némō ← *ném-e-ti
  • naam ← nam ← nām ← nám ← *nēmō
  • enumeration
  • luma ← լումա ← լումայ
  • enumerate ← enumerātus
  • numismatics ← numismatique ← nomisma ← νόμισμα ← νομίζω
  • unnumbered ← unnoumbird

through Latin numerus

37 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun Quantity of countable things.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “number”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *nem- / number