"fifty" in seven languages
Meaningfifty
Spanish
cincuenta
/θinˈkwenta/
inherited
French
cinquante
/sɛ̃kɑ̃t/
inherited
Italian
cinquanta
/tʃinˈkwanta/
inherited
Portuguese
cinquenta
/sĩˈkwẽtɐ/
inherited
Romanian
cincizeci
/tʃintʃˈzetʃʲ/
other source · Romanian compound cinci zeci 'five tens'
Catalan
cinquanta
/siŋˈkwantə/
inherited
English
fifty
/ˈfɪfti/
Indo-European kin · PIE *pénkʷe + *déḱm̥ 'ten'
English → ItalianfiftycinquantaDistant cognateRelated only through Indo-European, thousands of years back (night ~ noche). But English has relatives: quinquagenarian.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
QUĪNQUĀGINTĀ‘fifty’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Like cinco, the first QU- was dissimilated to c- and then softened.
English relatives: quinquagenarian