Reconstruction:Proto-Hellenic/hekətón

This Proto-Hellenic 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-Hellenic

**Proto-Hellenic numbers ^(edit)**
← 10	← 90	100	1,000 →
		10
Cardinal: *hekətón

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm with unexpected prefix *he-, the origin of which is disputed:

probably by analogy with *hen- (“one”), thus a compound “one hundred”, but this does not explain the loss of /n/;
perhaps from earlier *hə- (equivalent to the zero-grade of the above), from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥- (“whole, one”), with a vowel change due to either dissimilation or influence from full-grade *hen- (cf. also PIE *sm̥-ǵʰesl- (“one thousand”));
according to Kortlandt, from *ekətón with sporadic aspiration (maybe due to folk-etymological contamination by *hen-), wholly inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ḱm̥tóm. Per his version of glottalic theory, this reflects pre-PIE **dḱm̥tóm, thus providing a link to *déḱm̥ (“ten”).^[1]^[2] Compare *ewī́kəti (“twenty”).

Numeral

*hekətón

hundred

Descendants

Ancient Greek: ἑκατόν (hekatón) (see there for further descendants)

References

^ Kortlandt, Frederik (1983) “Greek numerals and PIE glottalic consonants”, in Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft [Munich Studies in Linguistics], volume 42, pages 97–104
^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ἑκατόν”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 397

[1] Kortlandt, Frederik (1983) “Greek numerals and PIE glottalic consonants”, in Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft [Munich Studies in Linguistics], volume 42, pages 97–104

[2] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ἑκατόν”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 397

[1]

[2]