dizaine

Forms

dizaine f (plural dizaines)^[1] Old French disaine;^[2] 16th-century dizeine (1515), then dizaine by about 1563.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from French dix + -aine.^[4][5][1] The numeral is from Latin decem (“ten”).^[6][7][2] The suffix replaced an older -ein, from the Latin ending -ēnus of the distributive numerals.^[6]

Cognate with Occitan desena, Spanish decena and Italian diecina.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1360–1370, in the epic Baudouin de Sebourc, meaning a group of ten units.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

In 1411 the Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris uses dizaine for an old subdivision of a city's quarters; its head was the dizenier or dizainier, the leader of ten men of the town guard.^[4][9][8] Furetière records in 1690 the dizaine de chapelet, the ten small beads of a rosary between two large ones,^[4][9][3] and by metonymy the ten prayers said on them.^[9][10] In arithmetic it names the unit of the second order in decimal notation, and in everyday use it means about ten.^[4][10]

Timeline

• 1360–1370 – First record, “group of ten”, in Baudouin de Sebourc.^[4]
• 1411 – A subdivision of the quarters of Paris.^[4]
• 1515 – The spelling dizeine.^[3][6]
• 1690 – Furetière records the dizaine of a rosary.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A group of ten units; in arithmetic, the tens: les dizaines et les unités.^[10][4][1]
2. A set of ten people or things of the same kind.^[10][8]
3. About ten, roughly ten: une dizaine de jours.^[10][4][1]
4. A decade of the rosary, ten small beads between two large ones, and the prayers said on them.^[10][9]
5. (historical) A subdivision of a city's quarters.^[4][8]

Word family

• dizainier

Related words

• centaine
• cinquantaine
• douzaine
• huitaine
• quarantaine
• quinzaine
• soixantaine
• trentaine
• vingtaine
• dix
• dizain
• dixième

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 23b
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert