dez

Forms

dez m or f^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote dez and dex;^[2][3] des appears in the 15th century.^[2][3] Pereira (1697) still gives Dez, ou des.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin decem (“ten”), written Old Galician-Portuguese dez in the oldest texts.^[2][1][5]

The same Latin word is Galician dez, Spanish diez, Catalan deu, Occitan detz, French dix, Italian dieci and Romanian zece.^[6][1]

The Latin word is from Proto-Italic *dekem and Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥, the source also of Ancient Greek δέκα (déka), Sanskrit दश (daśa), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿𐌽 (taihun) and the English word ten.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the numeral to the 13th century, from the index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have dez daquestes porcos meus “ten of these pigs of mine”, and already the compounds dez e seis “sixteen”, dez e oito “eighteen” and dez e nove “nineteen”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The medieval teens were phrases: the cantigas d'escarnho count dez e trés for thirteen and dez e cinque for fifteen.^[3] By 1611 Barbosa lists the single words dezaseys, dezasete, dezoyto and dezanove.^[9] The Crónica Geral writes the number most often as the Roman numeral X.^[3]

As a noun the word names the figure 10, a playing card with ten pips and a mark of ten in an examination.^[10][11] In Brazil dez became a slang adjective “excellent”, from the top mark nota dez.^[1][12] The old phrase como um dez meant “with complete certainty” or “perfectly at ease”, and in Portugal entre as dez e as onze means “tipsy”.^[13][2][11] Macanese keeps the word as dez.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – dez and dez e seis in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 1416 – dez in the Vida de Santo Aleixo Confessor.^[14]
• 15th century – the spelling des.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Dez as decem.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists dezaseys, dezasete, dezoyto and dezanove.^[9]
• 1697 – Pereira gives the spellings dez and des.^[4]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau notes that ten is the first number written with two figures.^[16]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives the word from Latin decem.^[17]

Meanings

Numeral

1. ten, nine plus one: Comprei dez laranjas.^[2][10][1]
2. (after a noun) Tenth in a series: o capítulo dez.^[2][10]

Noun

1. The number ten, or the figure 10 or X that writes it.^[2][10]
2. A playing card with ten pips: o dez de espadas.^[10][18]
3. A mark of ten in an examination or assessment.^[10][11]

Adjective

1. (Brazil, slang) Excellent, great: A festa foi dez!^[1][12]

Word family

• dezena
• dezasseis
• dezesseis
• dezassete
• dezessete
• dezoito
• dezanove
• dezenove

Related words

• décimo
• dízimo
• dezembro
• Latin decem
• Galician dez
• Spanish diez

Usage notes

In Brazil dar de dez em means “to be far better than”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. dez
3. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. dez
4. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. dez
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. decem
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
10. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. dez
11. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. dez
12. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org
13. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. dez
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. dez
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
16. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
17. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 1000
18. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. dez