Etymologically
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deciens

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Forms

deciēns (not comparable)[1] It is also spelled deciēs.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin decem (“ten”) + -iēns.[2][1][3] Wiktionary traces decem to Proto-Italic *dekəm and Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ (“ten”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,[4] whose Amphitruo has "I have said it ten times", a round number for “often”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means ten times, on ten occasions: Ovid has the moon that had filled its orb ten times.[2] As a round number it simply means many times, as in Plautus.[2] It is used in compound numerals, as in Horace's eleven times ten years.[2] With centum mīlia understood it means a million, usually of sesterces: Horace says "take a million for yourself", and bis deciēns is two million.[2] Varro treats it as indeclinable,[3] and the grammarian Caper says that all numeral adverbs should be written without ⟨n⟩, as deciēs.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, "I have said it ten times".[2][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro on the word.[3]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a million sesterces.[2]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of ten moons.[2]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Ten times, on ten occasions;[2][1] (as a round number) many times.[2][1]
  2. (in compound numerals) Ten times.[2]
  3. (understanding centum mīlia, usually of money) A million (sesterces).[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de