deciduous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēciduus (“tending to fall, falling, hanging down”),^[2][3][4][5] with the suffix -ous,^[2][6][3] from dēcidō (“to fall down or off”),^[2][7][8] formed from dē- (“down, off”) and cadō (“to fall”),^[7][9][10] from Proto-Indo-European *kad- (“to fall”).^[7][4] The a of the simple verb is weakened to i in the compound.^[10] In post-classical Latin the adjective also meant fleeting, from the 6th century in British sources, and it described parts of plants and animals by 1615; compare French décidu, recorded in 1611.^[2] Ayto groups it with decay and decadence, from the same Latin verb,^[11] and Klein with cadence.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Falling down or off: 1656, in H. More's Enthusiasmus Triumphatus, a rare sense now obsolete.^[2] Merriam-Webster's first date, 1657, is that of the botanical and zoological sense,^[9][2] while Etymonline gives the 1680s and Barnhart 1688.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

In English the word soon came to mean shed at a fixed time or stage, of leaves, petals, teeth or antlers, in a 1657 translation of Renou's medicinal work.^[2] From there it passed to the plant itself: a tree or shrub that loses its leaves every year, in Wilkins's Real Character of 1668,^[2] although Etymonline dates this use only to 1778.^[7] Etymonline says that the Latin adjective was used of shooting stars and testicles, but apparently not of trees or leaves,^[7] while the OED finds it for plant and animal parts in post-classical Latin by 1615.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as falling, not perennial, not lasting through the year, and quoted Quincy on the calyx.^[12] Later uses are medical (1777, of the decidua) and zoological (1875, of the wings of ants and termites),^[2] and a figurative, chiefly literary sense of fleeting or transitory appeared in 1763.^[2]

Timeline

• 1656 – falling down or off (obsolete).^[2]
• 1657 – of parts of plants or animals: shed at a set time or stage.^[2][9]
• 1668 – of a tree or shrub: shedding its leaves every year.^[2] Etymonline dates this to 1778.^[7]
• 1763 – figuratively, fleeting, transitory.^[2]
• 1770 – waning, declining (obsolete by 1791).^[2]
• 1777 – relating to the decidua.^[2]
• 1875 – of the wings of insects: shed after mating.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a tree or shrub: shedding all its leaves every year, as opposed to evergreen: The deciduous oaks stand bare in January.^[13][9][2]
2. Of woodland: made up mainly of such plants.^[2][9]
3. Of parts of plants and animals, such as leaves, antlers, teeth or insect wings: shed at a particular time or stage of growth, as deciduous teeth, or milk teeth.^{[13][9][5][2]}
4. (rare) Not lasting; transitory.^[13][2][5]

Word family

• deciduously
• deciduousness
• indeciduous
• nondeciduous
• deciduous tooth

Related words

• decay
• decadence
• cadence
• case
• chance
• decidua

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins