decorate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English decorat (“made beautiful, adorned”), first a participial adjective,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin decorātus (“adorned, beautiful”), the past participle of decorō (“to adorn, beautify, embellish”),^{[5][6][4][3][7]} from decus (“ornament, grace, dignity, honour”),^[5][6][3][8] which is related to decet (“it is fitting”) and so to decent.^[4][7] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *dek- (“to take, accept”).^[6][3] The OED explains that, as with other verbs of this form, the Latin participle was first adopted as an adjective, and its form was then taken as the stem of a verb;^[5] the old participle decorat went on serving as the past participle for some time, until the regular past participle replaced it.^[5] Etymonline notes an earlier verb decoren (early 15th century),^[6] and Barnhart thinks the English verb was also influenced by Middle French décorer (“to ornament”).^[4] The same Latin root gave decorous and decorum.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Made beautiful, adorned: probably before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, where a body part treated with cosmetic preparations is said to be decorate, glossed "made faire".^[2][4] The OED's first record of the adjective is from 1460.^[5] The verb, to adorn or grace, is first recorded in 1530, in Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement.^[5][4][10] Etymonline dates it to the 1520s.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense of the verb was general: to adorn, beautify, embellish, and also to grace or honour, a use the OED now marks as obsolete or archaic.^[5][11] The Oxford Dictionary of English likewise gives "to grace or honour" as its mid-16th-century sense.^[12] Johnson (1755) still defined it simply as to adorn, embellish or beautify.^[13] Hoad sums up the later development: "adorn" in the 16th century, "deck with ornamental accessories" in the 18th, "invest with an honour" in the 19th.^[9] The sense of furnishing something with ornaments appears in Fanny Burney's diary in 1782.^[5] From 1852 it was used specifically of decking a town with flags and bunting.^[5] The sense of conferring a medal or the badge of an order dates from 1815 in the OED^[5] but from 1816 in Etymonline.^[6] From 1858 the verb was used of painting or papering the walls of a room or house, and since 1939 also intransitively, of doing such work.^[5] Collins also records a technical sense in physics: to deposit a thin metal film on a crystal so that flaws in its structure show.^[14] In American slang it has meant to injure, especially to give someone a black eye, since 1919.^[15] The adjective decorate, adorned, survived in poetry long after the verb took its place.^[11][10]

Timeline

• before 1425 – decorat, made beautiful, adorned (participial adjective).^[2][4]
• 1460 – adjective, adorned, ornate.^[5]
• 1530 – verb, to adorn, beautify; to grace or honour.^[5][4][10] Etymonline dates the verb to the 1520s.^[6]
• 1782 – to furnish with ornaments.^[5]
• 1815 – to award a medal or other decoration to.^[5] Etymonline dates this sense to 1816.^[6]
• 1852 – to deck a town with flags and bunting.^[5]
• 1858 – to paint or wallpaper a room or building.^[5]
• 1870 – of things, to serve as ornaments on.^[5]
• 1919 – American slang, to injure, give a black eye.^[15]
• 1939 – intransitive, to paint or wallpaper a room.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make something more attractive by adding ornaments, colour or the like: They decorated the hall with paper lanterns.^[14][10][5]
2. Of things, to serve as an ornament on: Garlands decorated every doorway.^[5]
3. To paint or wallpaper a room or house, or to change its decor; also used without an object.^[14][5]
4. To award someone a medal or other mark of honour: The pilot was decorated for bravery.^[14][5]
5. (physics) To deposit a thin metal film on a crystal so that flaws in its structure can be seen.^[14]
6. (archaic) To adorn or grace; to honour.^[5][11]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Adorned, decorated; ornate.^[5][11][10]

Word family

• overdecorate
• undecorate
• decorative
• decorator
• redecorate

Related words

• decoration
• decor
• decorous
• decorum
• decent
• dignity

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com