deceniu

Forms

deceniu n (plural decenii)^[1] A rare feminine variant decenie, modelled on French décennie, occurs in Mihăescu: „cu o decenie și mai bine mai în vârstă decât dânsa” “older than her by a decade and more”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin decennium (“a period of ten years”), a learned loan, and possibly also borrowed from Italian decennio.^[3][5][6][1] The DLR adds French décennie to the sources, and DELR explains the rare feminine variant by the French word.^[2][3] The Latin noun is formed on decennis (“of ten years”) with the suffix -ium,^[7] itself made of decem (“ten”) and annus (“year”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1845, in the Magazin istoric pentru Dacia, with the sense “a period of ten years”.^[3] MDA2 dates it later, to Maiorescu's Critice, which speaks of “the last decades” of Romanian culture.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept a single sense, a span of ten years, as a synonym of decadă.^[3][5][4] Eminescu's line „Clipele vor fi decenii” “the moments will be decades” is quoted by the dictionaries of the classics.^[8][2] It is usually counted within a century: al doilea deceniu al secolului al XVII-lea “the second decade of the 17th century”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1845 – first record, in the Magazin istoric pentru Dacia.^[3]
• 1862 – the related adjective decenal “lasting ten years; recurring every ten years”, from Latin and French.^[3]
• 1867–1892 – decenii in Maiorescu's Critice.^[4][2]
• 1929 – Șăineanu's dictionary defines it as an interval of ten years.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A decade: a period of ten years.^[5][4][1]
2. A unit of time equal to ten years; ten consecutive years counted within a century, as in în primul deceniu al secolului “in the first decade of the century”.^[10][8]

Related words

• decadă
• Latin decennium

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. deceniu
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. deceniu
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 616
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 277
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. deceniu
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 29
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 193
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. deceniu