Etymologically
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decumanus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [dɛ.kʊˈmaː.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [de.kuˈmaː.nus][1]

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]

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