Jump to content

Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/hundą

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
This Proto-Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Germanic

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm (hundred). Cognate with Latin centum, Old Irish cét, Lithuanian šimtas, Sanskrit शत (śatá).[1]

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]
cardinal number
100/120 Previous: *newuntēhundą
Next: *þūsundī

*hundą n

  1. (+genitive) a great hundred (120)
  2. (+genitive) a hundred (100)
  3. a hundred (an administrative division and a group of a hundred men sent out to fight as noted by Tacitus in his Germania)

Usage notes

[edit]

The words *hundą and *hundaradą may have not originally had a specific definition, but used as a general word for a fairly large number. This usage continued in many daughter languages, but eventually its value was fixed at 100 as was Latin centum, its cognate. Following a similar way to the third sense, Tacitus notes that being considered a member of the "hundred-band" - as in, one of the hundred men selected to fight - came to eventually be a sort-of "badge of honor" amongst those who "wore" said "badge".

Inflection

[edit]
neuter a-stemDeclension of *hundą (neuter a-stem)
singular plural
nominative *hundą *hundō
vocative *hundą *hundō
accusative *hundą *hundō
genitive *hundas, *hundis *hundǫ̂
dative *hundai *hundamaz
instrumental *hundō *hundamiz

Derived terms

[edit]

Descendants

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Guus Kroonen (2013) “*hunda- 1”, in Alexander Lubotsky, editor, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 256