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decade

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈdek.eɪd/, /dekˈeɪd/, /dɪˈkeɪd/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French décade,[2][3] from Late Latin decas, accusative decadem,[3][2] from Ancient Greek δεκάς (dekás, “group of ten”),[3][2] from déka “ten”,[3][2] from Proto-Indo-European *dekm- (“ten”).[3] It is related to ten, decimal and decimate.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A group of ten things, originally the divisions of Livy's history into ten books each: the mid-15th century in Etymonline,[3][4] probably about 1451 in Barnhart.[2] The OED's first quotation for a division of a literary work is 1475.[5]

Semantic evolution

A set or series of ten in general is from 1594.[5] The meaning “a period of ten years” is attested by the 1590s in Etymonline and 1605 in Barnhart and the OED,[3][2][5] but it did not become the main sense until the 19th century.[3] In the French Republican calendar a décade was a period of ten days that replaced the week (1798).[5] A division of the rosary, ten Hail Marys, keeps the stress on the first syllable, /ˈdek.əd/.[1][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1451 – a group of ten.[2]
  • 1475 – a ten-part division of a book.[5]
  • 1594 – any set of ten.[5]
  • 1605 – a period of ten years.[5][2]
  • 1798 – the ten-day week of the French Republic.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A period of ten years, especially one such as 1990–1999.
  2. A group or series of ten.
  3. (Roman Catholic) A section of the rosary of ten Hail Marys.

Word family

  • decadal
  • decadelong

Usage notes

The usual British pronunciation stresses the first syllable, but second-syllable stress is also heard.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin