The other day, when I was thinking about languages, as you do, I realised that many languages I speak (or know at least a few words) have very similar way of saying “new” – nový, nuevo, nuovo, nowy, neu, …, which definitely caught my attention. So I took out my lovely etymologic dictionary (actually, both of them), blew off the dust and started my research.
According to William W. Smith’s English etymology (1873), the word “new” has Anglo-Saxon root (niwe). Interestingly though, this person added the word “renew” to the category of words with Latin roots. And sure enough, the Latin word is similar (novus).
My Slovak etymology dictionary by Ľubor Králik suggested that “nový” comes from the Proto-Slavic language. At this point I understood that this word must originally come from the Proto-Indo-European language. What I did not understand, however, was why the dictionary forwards me to check the word nine, or deväť in Slovak. There’s nothing in common there. Or is there?
The words nine and new have more in common than one (I) would think. Apparently, nine was used to name a start of the new number set when people (back in the days) used only eight fingers (no thumbs) to count. We can see the link in many languages – nuevo + nueve (Spanish), nuovo + nove (Italian), neu + neun (German), novus + novem (Latin) to name a few. What seems to have happened with the Slavic languages is an unusual dissimilation and the influence of the following number ten (desať in Slovak). So N became D. The more you know~
