An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/fünf

by Friedrich Kluge

fünf, card. numeral, ‘five,’ from Middle High German vünf, Old High German funf, also earlier finf; corresponding to Gothic fimf, Old Icelandic fimm, Anglo-Saxon fif, English five, Dutch vijf, Old Saxon fîf. Gothic fimf, from pre-Teutonic pempe, pénqe (for the permutation of Aryan q to Teutonic f see Föhre, vier, Wolf); compare Sanscrit páñcan, Greek πέντε (πέμπε, πέμπτος), Latin quinque (for *pinque), Lithuanian penkí, Old Irish cóic, Welsh pimp; a common Teutonic term, like all numbers from 2 to 10; the oldest form is pénqe, pénke. The attempts to discover the root with some such meaning as ‘hand,’ and to connect the word with Finger, have produced no result. The Aryan numerals are presented to us as compact forms, the origin of which is obscure. The ordinal fünfte is, like all ordinals, a derivative of an old form; Gothic fimfta, Old High German fimfto, funfto, Middle High German vünfte; Dutch vijfde, Anglo-Saxon fîfta, English fifth. Compare Latin quintus for *pinctus, Greek πέμπτος, Sanscrit pañcathas, Lithuanian pènktas.