Etymologically
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decempeda

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [dɛˈkɛm.pɛ.da][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈt͡ʃɛm.pe.da][1]

Forms

decempeda f (genitive decempedae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin decem (“ten”) + pēs (“foot”), with the second part in the form ⟨-peda⟩.[2][1][3] Wiktionary notes that its senses were influenced by Ancient Greek ἄκαινα (ákaina), a ten-foot measure based on a standardised ox goad.[1] The grammarian Priscian remarks that the word is masculine in Greek but feminine in Latin.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Cicero,[5][4] who in the speech for Milo describes a man going round other people's country houses cum architectīs et decempedīs, “with architects and measuring rods”.[4][6]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero it is the surveyor's rod: in the Philippics a skilled land measurer has divided up a city with his rod, and in the Academica he speaks of measuring the size of the sun as if with a ten-foot rod.[4][6] Horace looks back to a time when no private colonnades were measured out with such rods,[4][7] and Seneca uses it in his letters.[4]

The land surveyor Balbus defined it as a rod of ten feet, also called pertica,[4] and Palladius speaks of a decempeda quadrāta, a square with sides of ten feet.[7][1] A British medieval glossary still explains it as a rod for measuring land.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of surveyors' measuring rods.[4][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace speaks of colonnades measured out with ten-foot rods.[4][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in his letters.[4][5]
  • end of 4th/beginning of 5th century AD – Palladius uses decempeda quadrāta for a square measure.[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A measuring rod ten feet long, used by surveyors.[2][6][9]
  2. A length of ten (Roman) feet.[2][1]
  3. decempeda quadrāta: a unit of area, a square with sides of ten feet.[7][1]

Word family

  • decempedalis
  • decempedātor

Usage notes

In the surveyors' list of measures it comes between the passus and the pertica.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier