δέκα

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /dé.ka/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈðe.ka/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈðe.ka/^[1]

Forms

δέκᾰ (déka) (ordinal δέκᾰτος, adverbial δεκᾰ́κῐς)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *dékə, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ (“ten”).^[1][2] Cognate with Latin decem (“ten”), Sanskrit दश (dáśa, “ten”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿𐌽 (taihun, “ten”), Old Armenian տասն (tasn, “ten”) and Old English tīen (“ten”).^[2][1]

Beside it stood a collective form with /t/, seen in Sanskrit दशत् (daśát), Lithuanian dẽšimt (“ten”) and Old Church Slavonic десѧть (desętĭ, “ten”), which may also underlie the ordinal δέκατος (dékatos, “tenth”).^[2][3] Arcadian has δέκο (déko), and an archaic spelling ζέκα (zéka) is found.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it from the Iliad (2.372) and the Odyssey on.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

With the article it named groups of ten: “the Ten” and “the tyranny of the Ten” at Athens (Isocrates, Aristotle), and later the ten Attic orators (Philostratus).^[6] Xenophon uses “the ten from youth” for those ten years past the age of military service, and Appian renders the Roman decemviri.^[6] Compound numerals such as δεκαείς became usual only in Hellenistic Greek.^[6]

Its derivatives include δεκάτη (dekátē) “the tenth part, tithe” and δεκάς (dekás) “a group of ten”, a Greek innovation.^[2] The word continues unchanged in Medieval and Modern Greek δέκα and in Mariupol Greek.^[7][8][1] English deca- comes from it.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it.^[5][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Isocrates uses “the Ten” of the Athenian rulers.^[6][4]
• Hellenistic – Compound numerals with δέκα become usual.^[6]
• 2nd century AD – Appian uses “ten men” for the Roman decemvirs.^[6][4]
• Modern Greek – δέκα means ten.^[8]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Ten.^[6][10]
2. (with the article) The Ten, a board of ten men.^[6]

Related words

• Latin decem
• English ten
• English deca-

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press