Latin numerals


The Latin numerals are the words used to denote numbers within the Latin language. They are essentially based on their Proto-Indo-European ancestors, and the Latin cardinal numbers are largely sustained in the Romance languages. In Antiquity and during the Middle Ages they were usually represented by Roman numerals in writing.
Latin numeral roots are used frequently in modern English, particularly in the names of large numbers.

Overview

The Latin language had several sets of number words used for various purposes. Some of those sets are shown in the tables below.

Cardinal numerals

The cardinal numerals are the ordinary numbers used for counting ordinary nouns :
The conjunction between numerals can be omitted: vīgintī ūnus, centum ūnus. Et is not used when there are more than two words in a compound numeral: centum trīgintā quattuor. The word order in the numerals from 21 to 99 may be inverted: ūnus et vīgintī. Numbers ending in 8 or 9 are usually named in subtractive manner: duodētrīgintā, ūndēquadrāgintā. Numbers may either precede or follow their noun.
Most numbers are invariable and do not change their endings:
  • regnāvit Ancus annōs quattuor et vīgintī
However, the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 200, 300, etc. change their endings for gender and grammatical case. Ūnus 'one' declines like a pronoun and has genitive ūnīus and dative ūnī:
The first three numbers have masculine, feminine and neuter forms fully declined as follows :
Declension1 mfn2 mfn3 mfnBrGLWh
Nominativeūnusūnaūnumduoduaeduotrēstria111
Vocativeūneūnaūnumduoduaeduotrēstria256
Accusativeūnumūnamūnumduōs/duoduāsduotrēs/trīstria344
Genitiveūnīus/-iusūnīusūnīusduōrumduārumduōrumtriumtrium422
Dativeūnīūnīūnīduōbusduābusduōbustribustribus533
Ablativeūnōūnāūnōduōbusduābusduōbustribustribus665

  • omnēs ūnius aestimēmus assis
  • duo ex tribus fīliīs
  • dīvidunt tōtam rem in duās partīs
Mīlle '1000' is indeclinable in the singular but variable in the plural:
  • dā mī bāsia mīlle, deinde centum
  • mīllia aliquantō plūra quam trecenta
When it is plural, the noun it refers to is put in the genitive case:
  • cum sex mīlibus equitum
Mīlle passūs '1000 paces' is the Latin for a mile:
  • quīcumque tē angariāverit mīlle passūs, vade cum illō et alia duo
When the number is plural, the genitive passuum is sometimes omitted:
  • non longius ab oppidō X mīlibus
Larger numbers such as 2000, 3000, etc. could be expressed using either cardinal numbers or distributive numbers :
  • Gracchus domō cum proficīscēbātur, numquam minus terna aut quaterna mīlia hominum sequēbantur

    Ordinal numerals

Ordinal numerals all decline like normal first- and second-declension adjectives. When declining two-word ordinals, both words decline to match in gender, number and case.
  • 'first'
  • 'second'
  • 'third'
  • / 'twentieth'
Note: secundus only means 'second' in the sense of 'following'. The adjective meaning 'other ' was more frequently used in many instances where English would use 'second'.
Ordinal numbers, not cardinal numbers, are commonly used to represent dates, because they are in the format of 'in the tenth year of Caesar', etc. which also carried over into the anno Domini system and Christian dating, e.g. annō post Chrīstum nātum centēsimō for AD 100.
  • diē septimō pervēnit

    Ordinal numerals + ''-ārius''

Based on the ordinary ordinals is another series of adjectives: prīmārius 'of the first rank', secundārius 'of the second class, of inferior quality', tertiārius 'containing a third part', quārtārius 'a quarter, fourth part', quīntārius 'containing five parts', 'five-sixths', sextārius 'a one-sixth part of a congius, 'pint', and so on.
  • domī suae vir prīmārius
  • secundāriī pānis quīnās sēlībrās
  • tertiārum
  • quārtāriōs vīnī
  • quīntārius numerus
  • oleī sextārius
  • octāvārium vectīgal

    numerals

Certain nouns in Latin were plurālia tantum, i.e. nouns that were plural but which had a singular meaning, for example 'a letter', 'a camp', 'a set of chains', ' clothes', 'winter quarters', 'wedding', 'quadriga' etc. A special series of numeral adjectives was used for counting these, namely,,,,,, and so on. Thus Roman authors would write: 'one letter', 'three letters', 'five camps', etc.
Except for the numbers 1, 3, and 4 and their compounds, the plurale tantum numerals are identical with the distributive numerals.
  • non dīcimus bīga ūna, quadrīgae duae, nūptiae trēs, sed prō eō ūnae bīgae, bīnae quadrīgae, trīnae nūptiae
  • Tullia mea vēnit ad mē... litterāsque reddidit trīnās
  • Octāvius quīnīs castrīs oppidum circumdedit

    Distributive numerals

Another set of numeral adjectives, similar to the above but differing in the adjectives for 1, 3, and 4, were the distributive numerals:,,,,,, and so on. The meaning of these is 'one each', 'two each' and so on, for example
  • ibī turrīs cum ternīs tabulātīs ērigēbat
  • bīnī senātōrēs singulīs cohortibus praepositī
  • lēgātī ternī in Āfricam... et in Numidiam missī
  • in singulōs equitēs... nummōs quīnōs vīcēnōs dedērunt
The word singulī is always plural in this sense in the classical period.
The distributive numerals are also used for multiplying:
  • ter terna, quae sunt novem
In numbers 13 to 19, the order may be inverted, e.g. dēnī ternī instead of ternī dēnī.

Distributive numerals + ''-ārius''

Based on the distributive numerals are derived a series of adjectives ending in -ārius: 'unique', 'extraordinary', 'of one part', 'singular', 'of two parts', 'of three parts', 'of four parts', and so on.
Often these adjectives specify the size or weight of something. The usual meaning is 'of so many units', the units being feet, inches, men, pounds, coins, or years, according to context:
  • scrobēs quaternāriī, hoc est quōquōversus pedum quattuor
  • quīnāria, dicta ā diametrō quīnque quadrantum
  • quīngēnāriae cohortēs
  • quīngēnārius thōrāx
  • quīngēnāria poena
They can also be used for specifying age:
  • exhērēdāta ab octōgēnāriō patre
Some of these words have a specialised meaning. The sēnārius was a kind of metre consisting of six iambic feet commonly used in spoken dialogue in Roman comedy. There were also metres called the septēnārius and octōnārius.
The dēnārius was a silver coin originally worth ten assēs ; but there was also a gold dēnārius, mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Petronius, worth 25 silver dēnāriī. The silver dēnārius is often mentioned in the New Testament, and was stated to be the day's pay in the parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard.

Adverbial numerals

Adverbial numerals are indeclinable adverbs, but because all of the other numeral constructions are adjectives, they are listed here with them. Adverbial numerals give how many times a thing happened. 'once', 'twice', 'thrice, three times', 'four times', and so on.
The suffix -iēns may also be spelled -iēs:,, etc.
  • equidem deciēs dīxī

    Multiplicative numerals

Multiplicative numerals are declinable adjectives. 'single', 'double', 'treble', 'fourfold', and so on.
These numerals decline as 3rd declension adjectives:
  • triplicem aciem instruxit
  • tabellās duplicēs tenentem
For completeness all the numbers have been given above. Not all of these numerals are attested in ancient books, however.
Based on this series of numerals there is a series of adverbs: simpliciter 'simply, frankly', dupliciter 'doubly, ambiguously', tripliciter 'in three different ways' etc., as well as verbs such as duplicāre 'to double', triplicāre 'to triple', quadruplicāre 'to make four times as much', and so on.

Proportional numerals

Proportional numerals are declinable adjectives. 'simple', 'twice as great', 'thrice as great', 'four times as great', and so on.
These are often used as nouns: simplum 'the simple sum', duplum 'double the amount of money' and so on.
  • duplam pecūniam in thēsaurōs repōnī

    Linguistic details

Cardinal numbers

The numeral ūnus < Old Latin oinos ‘one’, with its cognates Old Irish óen ‘one’, Gothic ains ‘one’, Ancient Greek οἴνη oínē ‘ace on dice’, and the first part of Old Church Slavonic inorogŭ ‘Unicorn’, harks back to Proto-Indo-European *Hoi̯-no-s. The genitive forms ūnīus, ūnĭus and the dative form ūnī match the pronominal declension, the remaining forms conform with those of first and second declension adjectives. Nominative and accusative forms persist within the Romance languages as numeral and also in its secondarily acquired role as indefinite article, e. g. Old French and Occitan uns, une, un, Italian un, una, Spanish un, una, Portuguese um, uma, Romanian un, o.