dime

Pronunciation

• IPA: /daɪm/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dime (“tenth part, tithe”),^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French disme, dime (“tenth part”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin decima (“tenth part”), short for decima pars, the feminine of decimus (“tenth”),^{[2][3][4][5][7]} from decem (“ten”) (see ten).^[2][3][5][8] The root is Proto-Indo-European *dekm- (“ten”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tenth part, a tithe paid to the church or to a ruler (about 1377 in the OED; about 1378 in Barnhart).^[9][3][10]

Semantic evolution

In 1786 the old word was chosen as the name of the United States coin worth ten cents, a tenth of a dollar.^{[3][4][9][11]} Bartlett (1848) notes that the term was then in common use in the South and West, while in the East and North older names for Spanish coins persisted.^[12] A dime novel, a cheap sensational novel, is recorded from 1859.^[9][11] The phrase a dime a dozen, almost worthless, dates from 1930.^[9][4] In drug slang a dime is ten dollars' worth of a drug,^[13][5] and the verb to dime, to inform on someone, from the cost of a pay-phone call, is from the 1960s.^[4][13]

Timeline

• c. 1377 – a tenth part, tithe.^[9][3]
• 1786 – the US ten-cent coin.^[9][3][5]
• 1859 – dime novel.^[9]
• 1930 – a dime a dozen.^[9][4]
• 1960s – verb, to inform on someone.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A coin of the United States or Canada worth ten cents, a tenth of a dollar.
2. A small sum of money.
3. (slang) Ten dollars' worth of an illegal drug; a dime bag.
4. (archaic) A tenth part; a tithe.

Verb

1. (slang) To inform on someone to the authorities.

Word family

• five-and-dime
• nickel-and-dime
• dime novel
• dime store
• half dime

Related words

• decimal
• decimate
• tithe
• ten
• December

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Bartlett, John Russell (1848), Dictionary of Americanisms, New York: Bartlett and Welford
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com