decadere

Forms

decadere (first-person singular present decàdo, first-person singular past historic decàddi, past participle decadùto, first-person singular future decadrò, auxiliary èssere)^[1] The early texts also have Old Italian descadere and Old Italian decazer in Milan.^[2][3][4] Older dictionaries record Old Italian dicadere.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *dēcadere, a remaking on cadere of Latin dēcidō (“to fall down”), from dē- (“down”) and cadō (“to fall”).^[2][7][1] The remade verb is recorded in Late Latin, in Chiron in the 4th century and in Isidore before 630.^[8] Like the simple verb it had two forms, one stressed on the stem and one in long ⟨-ēre⟩.^[8][4] Nocentini and Zingarelli start from the second.^[7][5]

The same verb is French déchoir, Old Occitan decazer, Catalan decaure, Spanish decaer and Portuguese decair.^[7][9][10] The LEI places the Catalan and northern Italian forms under the type stressed on the stem, and the French, Occitan, Spanish and Old Portuguese ones under the type in ⟨-ēre⟩.^[8] The Latin simple verb goes back to Proto-Italic *kad-e/o-, and de Vaan reconstructs a PIE root meaning “to fall” only with a question mark.^[11]

DELI finds the formation clear but the history obscure in its details: the family may have started from French décadence (1413, Medieval Latin decadentia), and the early descadere and descaduto would then be independent formations.^[2] Zingarelli calls the word learned, and Devoto describes it as a cross of the Latin verb with the Italian simple verb.^[5][12] decadenza and decadente are French loans, the second from décadent (1516).^[8][2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Milanese decazer in Bonvesin de la Riva, before 1315, said of a plant that withers and loses its vigour.^[3][8] Nocentini dates the verb before 1292, with the sense “to decline”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb meant passing from a good state to a bad one, and also becoming unhappy, a land going to ruin, simply falling, and an inheritance or right passing to someone.^[3] A Roman text of about 1358 uses decadere a of a kingdom that falls to its heir.^[8] Giovanni Querini's descadere in the 14th century has the main modern sense, said of poetry fallen from honour, and the form decadere follows before 1609 in Giulio Cesare Croce.^[2][4]

The legal sense of losing a right, an office or a throne appears in Bandello in 1554, and decadere da from 1572.^[2][8] The noun decadenza followed in Paolo Sarpi (1607–1618), and its legal sense of the extinction of an unexercised right in 1793.^[2] In the 20th century the noun decadimento took the sense of radioactive decay (1965), and the verb is used of a radioactive substance that decays.^[2][13][14]

At the end of the 19th century French décadent, which Théophile Gautier used in 1868 of Baudelaire's poetry, gave Italian decadente (1896) and decadentismo (1897), the name of the literary movement.^[2]

Timeline

• 4th century – Late Latin decadit is recorded in Chiron.^[8]
• Before 1315 – Bonvesin de la Riva uses Milanese decazer of a withering plant.^[3][8]
• 14th century – Giovanni Querini uses the form descadere.^[2][4]
• 1554 – Bandello has the sense “to lose a right or office”.^[2]
• Before 1609 – Giulio Cesare Croce uses the form decadere.^[2]
• 1607–1618 – Paolo Sarpi uses the noun decadenza.^[2]
• 1630 – Davila uses decaduto.^[2]
• 1896 – Decadente is used of a decadent writer.^[2]
• 1897 – Arturo Graf uses decadentismo.^[2]
• 1965 – Decadimento is recorded for radioactive decay.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To decline: to pass from prosperity, strength or prestige to weakness or poverty, or to lose vitality or importance little by little: Con gli anni quel teatro è decaduto.^{[15][16][13][5]}
2. To lose an office, a position or a title (with da): decadere dal seggio.^[15][16][14]
3. (law) To lose a right by failing to exercise it in time: decadere da un diritto.^[15][5][14]
4. (physics) Of a radioactive substance, to decay into another.^[13][14][6]
5. (nautical, uncommon) To drift, the same as scadere.^[16][17]

Word family

• decadente
• decadentismo
• decadentista
• decadenza
• decadimento
• decaduto

Related words

• cadere
• scadere
• deciduo
• French déchoir
• Latin decido

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like cadere and takes essere as its auxiliary.^[16][14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 462
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1220
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)