"number (amount)" in seven languages
Meaningnumber (amount)
Spanish
/ˈnumeɾo/
masc.learned
French
/nɔ̃bʁ/
masc.inherited
A phone or house number is numéro, borrowed from Italian.
Italian
/ˈnumero/
masc.learned
The inherited form survives in novero and annoverare 'to count among'.
Portuguese
/ˈnumeɾu/
masc.learned
Romanian
/ˈnumər/
neut.inherited
Catalan
/ˈnombɾə/
masc.inherited
English
/ˈnʌmbɚ/
from Latin/French · Old French nombre
Watch out: false friends
nombre (Spanish) means “name” · nombre (French) means “number”
Two Latin words that converged: Spanish nombre is NŌMEN 'name', from its oblique stem NŌMINE (m'n → mbr), French nombre is NUMERUM 'number' (m'r → mbr).
The Latin ancestor
NUMERUM‘number’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Only French inherited NUMERUM, squeezing it to nombre with a b slipped in (as English did after it: 'number'). Spanish and Italian use the learned word — and French borrowed Italian numero for numbered things.
English relatives: numeral, numerous, enumerate
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esEl número de estudiantes aumenta.
- frLe nombre d'étudiants augmente.
- itIl numero di studenti aumenta.
- ptO número de alunos está crescendo.
- roNumărul studenților crește.
- caEl nombre d'estudiants augmenta.
- enThe number of students is growing.