decumanus

Forms

decumānus (feminine decumāna, neuter decumānum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled decimānus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin decumus (“tenth”) + -ānus.^[2][1] ⟨decumus⟩ (later ⟨decimus⟩) is the ordinal of decem (“ten”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *dekm̥ and Proto-Indo-European *deḱm̥ (“ten”), with an ordinal *dekamo-; Oscan δεκμας (dekmas, “tithe”) is a related Oscan word.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucilius has a decumānus pānis, a huge loaf, from the belief that every tenth one in a series was bigger.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It relates to what is tenth: the tenth legion (the Bellum Africum), and a tax of a tenth, as Cicero's tithe-corn.^[2] The porta decumāna was the rear gate of a Roman camp (Caesar).^[2] As a noun a decumānus was a soldier of the tenth legion, a contractor who bought the right to collect the tithes of Sicily, often named with the farmers in Cicero's Verrines, and in surveying a boundary line across the land, usually running east to west; the decumānus maximus was the main line of the grid.^[2][1]

In medieval Latin the presbyterī decumānī were a particular class of the clergy of Milan.^[5][1]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of a huge loaf.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of tithe-corn and of tithe collectors.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of the porta decumāna.^[2][6]
• 852 – A charter has it in a medieval sense.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the tenth (legion or cohort).^[2][1]
2. Of a tithe, subject to a tax of a tenth.^[2][1]
3. (porta decumāna) Of the rear gate of a camp.^[2]
4. Huge, outsize.^[2]

Noun

1. A soldier of the tenth legion.^[2]
2. A contractor who collected tithes, a tax farmer.^[2][1]
3. (surveying) A boundary line, usually east–west; a main street of a town or camp.^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A member of a class of the Milanese clergy.^[5][1]

Related words

• decem
• decimus
• decuma
• cardō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de