dieci

Forms

dieci (invariable)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian diece, the older Tuscan form, and Old Italian dece and Old Italian diese.^[2][3] Old Venetian had dese (1287) and Old Genoese dexe.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin decem (“ten”).^[3][5][6][1] The stressed /ɛ/ became the Tuscan diphthong ⟨ie⟩, and the final ⟨-i⟩, in place of the ⟨-e⟩ of the older Old Italian diece, comes from the series undici, dodici and so on.^[7][3][6] DEI instead ascribes it to venti.^[8] The Latin numeral survives in every Romance language: French dix, Occitan detz, Catalan deu, Spanish diez, Portuguese dez, Sardinian dèghe and Romanian zece.^[5][9][4]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *dekem and Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥, the base of the Indo-European decimal system.^[10][1][5] Its cognates include Ancient Greek δέκα (déka), Sanskrit दश (dáśa), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿𐌽 (taihun), Old Irish deich, Welsh deg and ten.^{[10][5][1][11]}

The numbers from seventeen to nineteen, diciassette, diciotto and diciannove, are Italian phrases of the type “ten and seven”, which replaced Latin septemdecim, duodēvīgintī and ūndēvīgintī.^[5] The LEI points out that the type was already Latin: decem ⟨et octo⟩ is found in Caesar and Livy.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the form diece in Bono Giamboni, who died before 1292, and dieci in Florentine texts of 1296–1301.^[3] Prati quotes an older diecie from 1211.^[12] The LEI dates dieci in literature from Dante (1321), while his Convivio (1304–1307) still has diece.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The GDLI recalls that the Romans saw ten as a perfect number, the end of the decimal series, as Vitruvius says.^[2] Brunetto Latini wrote that it is no good bargain “di diece vender cento” (to sell a hundred for ten), and Dante uses diece in the Paradiso.^[2] From early on the number also stands for an indefinite large amount, as in te l'ho detto dieci volte, and the exclamation e dieci! greets something tiresome said once too often.^[13][6] A Tuscan proverb has it that a razor cut hurts more than ten sword cuts.^[13]

Decina “a group of ten” is recorded from the 14th century, diecimila from the 13th, and the coin diecino “ten-cent piece” is old.^[5][8] Historical bodies were named after their number, such as the Venetian Consiglio dei Dieci and the Florentine Dieci di Balìa.^[14][15] In modern usage dieci is also the top mark in Italian school grading, and gli anni Dieci are the decade from 1910 to 1919.^[6][16][17]

Timeline

• 1211 – Prati records diecie.^[12]
• 13th century – Diecimila is recorded.^[5]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses diece.^[3]
• 1296–1301 – Dieci appears in Florentine texts.^[3]
• 1304–1307 – Dante's Convivio has diece.^[4]
• 14th century – Decina is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Numeral

1. ten, the number after nine (10, X): Ci vediamo fra dieci minuti.^[6][16][7]
2. (hyperbolic) Many, a lot: Gliel'ho chiesto dieci volte, mangiare per dieci, to eat a great deal.^[6][16][7]
3. After a noun, with the value of an ordinal: la pagina dieci, il binario dieci.^[6][16][15]

Noun

1. The number ten and the figure that represents it: Ha scritto un dieci alla lavagna.^[6][16]
2. The tenth day of a month, or the tenth year of a century: Partiamo il dieci di giugno.^[6][16][17]
3. le dieci: ten o'clock, in the morning or at night.^[15][14]
4. The highest mark in Italian school grading: Ha preso dieci in storia.^[6][16][7]
5. (card games) The ten of a suit: il dieci di cuori.^[6][16][15]
6. gli anni Dieci: the 1910s.^[6][16][17]

Word family

• decina
• diecimila
• diciassette
• diciotto
• diciannove
• diecino

Related words

• decimo
• decimale
• decimare
• decuplo
• undici
• Latin decem

Usage notes

Dieci is invariable.^[1][15] Devoto–Oli gives diece as an archaic form.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 363
3. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 482
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1293
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 376
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli