decadence

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French décadence,^[2][3][4][5] recorded in French from 1413,^[4] from Medieval Latin decadentia (“a decaying, decline”),^[4][6][2][7] from Late Latin dēcadēns (“decaying”), the present participle of dēcadō (“to fall away, sink”),^[8][3][2] the verb that is also the source of decay.^[9][10] The verb is formed from dē- (“down, apart”) and cadō (“to fall”),^[6][2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *ḱad- (“to fall”).^[6][1] The OED notes that the Romance verb rests on a common Romance form of the Latin verb, and compares Spanish caer and French chéoir.^[4] The same Medieval Latin noun gave Spanish decadencia and Italian decadenza.^[4] The adjective decadent, recorded from 1837, was borrowed from French décadent, a back-formation from the French noun.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Decline or decay from a better state; deteriorated condition: about 1550, in The Complaynt of Scotland.^[4] Barnhart dates the word to 1549, Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1530 and Etymonline to the 1540s.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense of an ongoing process of falling away from a better or more vital state is dated by Etymonline to the 1620s.^[6] From the 19th century the word was applied to periods of decline in art and literature, on a French model:^[6][4] the related adjective was used of French writers who believed, or affected to believe, that they lived in an age of artistic decadence, in French from 1885 and in English from 1888.^[6][4] From 1882 the noun is also found in a neutral or approving sense, for luxury and self-indulgence, and now especially for the richness of food;^[4] Etymonline dates the matching appealing sense of decadent, used in advertising, to about 1970.^[6] The OED notes that the stress was formerly usually on the second syllable, perhaps after decay, that stress on the first was considered more scholarly around 1895, and that this is now standard.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1550 – decline, decay, impaired condition.^[4]
• 1620s – the process of falling away from a better or more vital state.^[6]
• 1812 – literally, a falling down or falling off.^[4]
• 1857 – a particular period of decline in art or literature.^[4] Etymonline dates this use to 1852.^[6]
• 1882 – luxuriousness, self-indulgence; later especially richness of food.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The process of falling into decline or decay, especially in morals or culture: Critics blamed the empire's fall on the decadence of its rulers.^[11][3][4]
2. The decayed or degenerate state reached by such a process.^[11][3]
3. A period of decline, especially in art or literature.^[3][4]
4. Luxurious self-indulgence; richness, especially of food.^[4]

Word family

• decadent
• nondecadent
• undecadent

Related words

• decadency
• decay
• deciduous
• cadence

Usage notes

Also decadency.^[11][7] The usual stress is on the first syllable, though Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records a pronunciation stressed on the second.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins