Reading some c.1850 news reports recently I found that the word "several" occurred with some frequency. Back then it was used to mean separate - and it stood out as a common word that had completely changed its meaning. So I have a question. What word did the Victorians use to mean "more than two but less than many" before several meant plusieurs? Was there indeed a word lying comfortably and noncommittally between "few" and "many"? And if not, what may have been the psychological consequences? I'm sure Fraggle will know!
Sorry to let you down! Dictionary.com lists this as the third meaning of "some," but doesn't give us a chronology. It is an ancient word with cognates in Greek and Sanskrit. However, the same source insists that "several" has had its current meaning since 1531, starting out as a legal term long before the Victorian Era. The meaning of "various, diverse, different" goes back to 1508. In 1422 it originally meant "separate," from Latin separare via French (where the P softened to V, as in pauper --> pauvre). Numerals don't really "fill the gap." We can say "six or seven kinds of sausage" or "this will ripen in eight to ten days," but that's much more specific than "several kinds" or "several days" and requires knowledge or estimating skill beyond what is implied by "several." We keep inventing words like "umpteen" and "twentysomething," or phrases like "sixty-odd," to bridge the gap between "several" and "many."
With small numbers that denote quantity between "several" and "many," precision is perfectly in place. So numerals do fill that gap.
