diez

Forms

diez m (plural dieces)^[1] Old Spanish texts also write dies, diz, dieç and dez.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin decem (“ten”).^[4][5][6][1] The same Latin word is Portuguese dez, Galician dez, Asturian diez, Catalan deu, Occitan detz, French dix, Italian dieci and Romanian zece.^[7][8][1]

The Latin numeral goes back to *dekem and *déḱm̥, the Indo-European word for “ten”.^[1][9] Its cognates include Ancient Greek δέκα (déka), Sanskrit दश (daśa), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿𐌽 (taihun) and Old English tīen, the ancestor of ten.^[1] Kluge calls the further origin unclear: an analysis as “two hands”, with a first element meaning “two”, does not work for Germanic.^[10]

Spanish formed its own words for the teens: dieciséis replaced Old Spanish seze, from Latin sēdecim, while diecisiete, dieciocho and diecinueve go back to the origins of the language.^[4][5] In the archaic period such numbers were also written as diez e quatro (a document of 1219) and dizetrés (1252).^[4]

The Latin ordinal decimus gave popular diezmo “tithe” and was later borrowed as décimo “tenth”.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid, about 1140: en aquessa corrida diez días ovieron a morar “in that raid they had to stay ten days”.^[4][5][11] Menéndez Pidal notes that the manuscript writes the number in figures in both places where it occurs.^[12] The first hit in the CDH that survives in its original document is a charter of obligation from Gijón (c. 1218–a. 1300): diez & siete faniegas “seventeen fanegas”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Besides the number, the word names several things counted in tens.^[6] The Diccionario de Autoridades records the diez de bolos, the pin set apart from the other nine in skittles, and the diez de rosario, the large bead that separates each ten small beads of the rosary, or the decade of ten Hail Marys itself; it quotes the Quijote: los dieces como huevos medianos de Avestrúz.^[13] The oath par diez was a euphemism for par Dios “by God”;^[14][15] Cervantes uses it, and the Academy recorded it in 1843.^[14][15]

In Chile and Mexico diez also named a silver coin worth ten centavos.^[16][17] In school marks it is the top grade, and placed after a noun such as chico or mujer it means “perfect, very attractive”.^[1][18] Tagalog has borrowed it as diyes.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[5][11]
• c. 1218–a. 1300 – a charter from Gijón has diez & siete faniegas.^[11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario: pesante de diez dragmas “weighing ten drachms”.^[19]
• 1519 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias names the diez of skittles and links the word with diezmo “tithe”.^[21]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the diez de bolos and the diez de rosario.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. decem”.^[22]

Meanings

Numeral

1. ten, nine plus one: Compré diez manzanas.^[6][1]
2. tenth, tenth in a series; of the days of the month, also as a noun: el diez de mayo.^[6]

Noun

1. The number ten; the sign or figure 10.^[6]
2. The larger bead set in a rosary to divide the decades;^[6] (rare) a decade of the rosary, ten Hail Marys and an Our Father.^[6]
3. In the French deck of cards, each of the four cards marked with ten pips.^[6]
4. (in the plural) Ten o'clock: Quedamos a las diez y media.^[6]
5. (education) The top mark in a test.^[1]
6. (colloquial) After a noun: perfect, outstanding.^[18]

Word family

• dieciséis
• diecisiete
• dieciocho
• diecinueve
• diezmilésimo

Related words

• décimo
• diezmo
• diciembre
• decena
• década
• Latin decem

Usage notes

The plural is dieces.^[1][13] Set phrases include diez de bolos, the separate pin in skittles, and las diez de últimas, the ten points won by whoever takes the last trick in some card games.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. diez
3. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 192
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 493
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. diez
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. diez
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. decem
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1004
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. diez
12. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 218
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 273
14. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 416
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 262
16. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 458
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 370
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
19. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. diez
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. diez
21. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 674
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 384