deni

Forms

dēnī (feminine dēnae, neuter dēna); plural only; distributive numeral^[1][2] The genitive plural is usually dēnum, in Cicero, Vitruvius, Livy and Columella, and also dēnōrum in Livy.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is the distributive of decem (“ten”).^[1][2] De Vaan suggests ⟨*deksno-⟩, with a suffix taken over from the lower numerals, and traces decem to Proto-Italic *dekm and Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ (“ten”).^[3] Cognate with Oscan δεκμας (dekmas, “a tithe”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] who has “I used to dig ten trenches a day”.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It means ten to each person or thing, as in Cato's ten measures of wine to each acre, and ten at a time.^[1] It also means a group of ten, as Caesar's Britons who share wives in groups of ten and twelve.^[1] With multiplying adverbs it forms numerals, as Virgil's ter dēnī “thirty”.^[1] Church Latin glosses it “by tens”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of ten trenches a day.^[1][3][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of ten measures to each acre.^[1][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of groups of ten.^[1][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of thirty years.^[1][5]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Ten each; ten at a time, by tens.^[1][2][4]
2. A group of ten, ten together.^[1]
3. In compound numerals, as ter dēnī, thirty.^[1][4]

Related words

• decem
• dēnārius
• decuria

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de