decennis

Forms

decennis (neuter decenne); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin decem (“ten”) + annus (“year”) + -is, a compound adjective.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Seneca,^[4][3] whose Agamemnon (921) speaks of Troy falling after a war of ten years.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It was used of things lasting ten years, above all the Trojan War and the siege of Veii, by Petronius, Quintilian and Florus,^[5][3] and of animals ten years old, such as mares in Pliny the Elder and an ass in Palladius.^[5] As a plural noun, decennia named the festival held every ten years under the emperors.^[5]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of the ten-year war against Troy.^[3][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius speaks of a ten-year battle.^[5][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of mares ten years old.^[5][4]
• c. 120 AD – Florus uses it of the ten-year siege of Veii.^[5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lasting ten years.^[2][5]
2. Ten years old.^[2][5]
3. (substantive, neuter plural) decennia: a festival held every ten years, the decennalia.^[5]

Word family

• decennālis
• decennium

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press