{"id":4009,"date":"2025-07-12T13:48:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T13:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?p=4009"},"modified":"2025-07-12T13:48:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T13:48:50","slug":"adventures-in-etymology-enumerating-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?p=4009","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Etymology &#8211; Enumerating Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject\"><meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Adventures in Etymology &amp;#8211; Enumerating Numbers\" \/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2025-07-12T13:48:49+00:00\" \/><meta itemprop=\"encodingFormat\" content=\"audio\/mpeg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"PT1M52S\" \/><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"In this Adventure in Etymology we untangle the roots of the word number.\n\n\n\nA number [\u02c8n\u0250mb\u0259(\u0279) \/ \u02c8n\u028c\u031fmb\u025a(\u0279)] is:\n\n\n  Quantity\n  An abstract entity used to describe quantity.\n  A numeral: a symbol for a non-negative integer.\n  An element of one of se...\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentSize\" content=\"1.9\" \/><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_6537\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4009-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?powerpress_pinw=4009-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"numbers.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p>In this Adventure in Etymology we untangle the roots of the word <strong>number<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/psychmamma\/5426498315\/in\/photolist-9gwdTM-4rVyuc-e5BLPs-bDTwQr-h4zN2T-ArKdx-FJ8Dv9-2no5x4m-8QUUTW-nn31fX-2noY57h-cydeeU-2jmw7jb-3MTXT-mbUWD-2yTo4-2o7PN1-2jnZwaJ-ekTpsz-2naJb6T-4uGcH4-6YP5zm-5vFzcF-55L77U-2jodX5b-24Srxj-aToFaB-qJyamo-7mwEUD-4uCrRS-2qxiu-69re1X-avMNjh-yXGKfj-2mZfHpw-2jnzcaB-2e7GDGU-9D1m6Z-4ByZgH-ajwkQ-vYb8w-2jaq6yb-2jnXnUJ-qe3d9M-qQaNUf-MwNxZ7-4n1e3x-2jnZZih-2nnPVfb-2joegLL\" title=\"Numbers\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5092\/5426498315_e6a793b10b_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"429\" alt=\"Numbers\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A <strong>number<\/strong> [\u02c8n\u0250mb\u0259(\u0279) \/ \u02c8n\u028c\u031fmb\u025a(\u0279)] is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Quantity<\/li>\n<li>An abstract entity used to describe quantity.<\/li>\n<li>A numeral: a symbol for a non-negative integer.<\/li>\n<li>An element of one of several sets: natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, etc<br \/>\n  <em>other meanings are available<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It comes from Middle English <em>nombre<\/em> (number), from Anglo-Norman <em>noumbre<\/em> (number), from Old French <em>nombre \/ nonbre<\/em> (number), from Latin <em>numerus<\/em> (number, collection, quantity, rank, position), from Proto-Italic <em>*nomezos<\/em>, from PIE <em>*nem(h\u2081)-<\/em> (to distribute, give, take) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/number#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same roots include <strong>economic(s)<\/strong>, <strong>geometrical<\/strong>, <strong>metronome<\/strong>, <strong>nemesis<\/strong>, <strong>nomad<\/strong> and <strong>numb<\/strong> in English, <strong>\u0146emt<\/strong> (to take, seize, accept, enjoy) in Latvian, <strong>nehmen<\/strong> (to take, hold, grasp) in German, <strong>nifer<\/strong> (number) in Welsh, and <strong>nimh<\/strong> (poison, venom) in Scottish Gaelic, and <strong>n\u00ebm\u00eb<\/strong> (curse) in Albanian [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European\/nem-\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>In Middle English, words for <strong>number<\/strong> included <em>rime<\/em>, which is related to <strong>rhythm<\/strong> and <strong>rhyme<\/strong> in modern English [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/rime#Middle_English\">source<\/a>], and <em>\u021det\u00e6l<\/em>, which also meant calculation, reckoning, a series and other things, and is related to <strong>tell<\/strong> and <strong>tale<\/strong> in modern English [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/get%C3%A6l#Old_English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, a <strong>numeral<\/strong> is a symbol that is not a word and represents a number, such as 1, 2, 3, \u096a, \u096b, \u096c, VII, VIII, IX, etc. It comes from the same roots as <strong>number<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/numeral#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The numerals 1, 2, 3, etc are commonly known as Arabic numerals, a name that comes from Medieval Latin <em>numerus Arabicus<\/em>, as they arrived in Europe from Arabic-speaking countries. They actually originated in India and developed from ancient <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brahmi_numerals\">Brahmi numerals<\/a> in about the 3rd century BC. They are also known as Hindu numerals, Hindu-Arabic numerals, Western Arabic numerals or Indo-Arabic numerals [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Arabic_numeral#English\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>The numerals used in Arabic and other languages, such as Persian and Urdu, are known as Eastern Arabic numerals and look a bit different: \u0660 (0), \u0661 (1), \u0662 (2), \u0663 (3), \u0664\/\u06f4\/\u06f4 (4), \u0665\/\u06f5 (5), etc [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eastern_Arabic_numerals\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>You can see numerals from many writing systems at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/language\/numerals.htm\">https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/language\/numerals.htm<\/a>, and you can find numbers in many languages at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/language\/numbers\/index.htm\">https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/language\/numbers\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can also listen to this podcast on: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/gb\/podcast\/radio-omniglot\/id1432641094\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/8b1b1d1b-b39e-4277-b28d-479a3b5043b3\/radio-omniglot\">Amazon Music<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/podcasts\/Education-Podcasts\/Radio-Omniglot-p1154145\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.podchaser.com\/podcasts\/radio-omniglot-716327\">Podchaser<\/a>, <a href=\"<a href=\"https:\/\/podbay.fm\/p\/radio-omniglot\">Podbay<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/podtail.com\/da\/podcast\/radio-omniglot\/\">Podtail<\/a> and other pod places.<\/p>\n<p>The theme tune for this podcast is <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/simon-ager\/the-unexpected-badger\">The Unexpected Badger \/ Y Mochyn Daear Annisgwyl<\/a>, a piece I wrote and recorded in 2017.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/339162597&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/simon-ager\" title=\"Simon Ager\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\">Simon Ager<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/simon-ager\/the-unexpected-badger\" title=\"The Unexpected Badger \/ Y Mochyn Daear Annisgwyl\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\">The Unexpected Badger \/ Y Mochyn Daear Annisgwyl<\/a><\/div>\n<p>If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/uk\/cgi-bin\/webscr?cmd=_flow&amp;SESSION=aLjPfXL-vP_1gQ_U23Iz8_hSWLlhzLHPMFZrt32dIEfG8htoNFLYaPoWkv8&amp;dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8def8934b92a630e40b7fef61ab7e9fe63\">PayPal<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/omniglot\">Patreon<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/donations.htm\">contribute to Omniglot in other ways<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Radio Omniglot podcasts are brought to you in association with <a href=\"https:\/\/blubrry.com\/services\/podcast-hosting\/?code=omniglot\">Blubrry Podcast Hosting<\/a>, a great place to host your podcasts. Get your first month free with the promo code <strong>omniglot<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I also write about words, etymology and other language-related topics on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/\">Omniglot Blog<\/a>, and I explore etymological connections between Celtic languages on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/\">Celtiadur<\/a> blog.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject\"><meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Adventures in Etymology &amp;#8211; Enumerating Numbers\" \/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2025-07-12T13:48:49+00:00\" \/><meta itemprop=\"encodingFormat\" content=\"audio\/mpeg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"PT1M52S\" \/><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"In this Adventure in Etymology we untangle the roots of the word number.\n\n\n\nA number [\u02c8n\u0250mb\u0259(\u0279) \/ \u02c8n\u028c\u031fmb\u025a(\u0279)] is:\n\n\n  Quantity\n  An abstract entity used to describe quantity.\n  A numeral: a symbol for a non-negative integer.\n  An element of one of se...\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentSize\" content=\"1.9\" \/><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_6538\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4009-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?powerpress_pinw=4009-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/numbers.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"numbers.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p>In this Adventure in Etymology we untangle the roots of the word number. A number [\u02c8n\u0250mb\u0259(\u0279) \/ \u02c8n\u028c\u031fmb\u025a(\u0279)] is: Quantity An abstract entity used to describe quantity. A numeral: a symbol for a non-negative integer. An element of one of several sets: natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, etc other meanings are available It comes from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,126,124,60,20,56,24,4,50,114,58,11,267,109,157,1,59,133,5,141,7],"tags":[90,9,15,268,269,88,8,103],"class_list":["post-4009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-etymology","category-albanian-shqip","category-anglo-norman-norman","category-arabic-","category-english","category-etymology","category-german","category-language","category-latin","category-latvian-latviesu-valoda","category-middle-english","category-music","category-numerals","category-old-french-franceis","category-persian-farsi-","category-podcast","category-proto-indo-european","category-proto-italic","category-scottish-gaelic","category-urdu-","category-welsh","tag-etymology","tag-language","tag-music","tag-number","tag-numeral","tag-omniglot","tag-podcast","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4009"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4011,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions\/4011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}