Etymologically
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decorate

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈdɛkəɹeɪt/[1]

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

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