decent

Forms

decent m or n (feminine singular decentă, masculine plural decenți, feminine/neuter plural decente)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French décent (“decent, seemly”) and directly borrowed from Latin decēns (“seemly, fitting”), one of the 19th-century neologisms with a double model.^[2][3][4][5] Ciorănescu, Tiktin and Wiktionary name only the French word, Scriban only the Latin one.^[6][7][1][8] The Latin adjective is the present participle of decet (“it is fitting, it becomes”).^[2][9] French had the word from the 15th century, first spelled descent, with both the moral sense “seemly, proper” and the physical sense “well proportioned” of Latin.^[10]

Old texts also have a variant desant.^[2] The abstract noun decență came separately, from décence, Italian decenza and Latin decentia, and is recorded earlier than the adjective.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1857, in a text by Aristia, with the sense “proper, in keeping with good manners”.^[2][7][11] MDA2 gives as its first record a passage of Heliade Rădulescu's works, where a rimă decentă is a passable rhyme.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

The DLR separates two senses: “meeting the minimum standards; adequate, acceptable, modest”, as in a trai decent “a decent living”, and “in keeping with propriety; seemly, chaste”, which Maiorescu set against indecent.^[11] Short dictionaries of the 20th century give only the sense of propriety, glossed with cuviincios.^[12][13][14] The word is also used as an adverb: one may be buried, or behave, decent.^[11]

Timeline

• 1832 – the noun dețenție, a variant of decență, in Asachi.^[2]
• 1848 – indecent and indecență in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[2]
• 1857 – decent “seemly” in Aristia, the first dated record.^[2][7]
• 1886 – Barcianu's dictionary glosses it with German wohlanständig.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. In keeping with good manners and propriety; seemly, respectable: Purta o rochie decentă la ceremonie.^[4][3][16]
2. modest in dress or behaviour, chaste.^[4][5][3]
3. Meeting reasonable standards; adequate, acceptable, without pretensions: un salariu decent.^[11][3]

Word family

• decență
• indecent
• indecență

Related words

• Latin decet
• decor

Usage notes

The adverb has the same form as the masculine adjective: s-a purtat decent.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. decent
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 277
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. decent
6. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. decent
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. decent
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 394
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ 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. decent
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 194
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. decent
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 29
15. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 163
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. decent