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Origin and history of decade

decade(n.)

mid-15c., "ten parts" (of anything; originally in reference to the divisions of Livy's history), from Old French décade (14c.), from Late Latin decadem (nominative decas), from Greek dekas (genitive dekados) "group of ten," from deka "ten" (from PIE root *dekm- "ten").

The meaning "period of ten consecutive years" is attested by 1590s in English but did not become the primary sense until 19c. Related: Decadal; decadary.

also from mid-15c.

Entries linking to decade

*dekm-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "ten."

It might form all or part of: cent; centenarian; centenary; centi-; centime; centurion; century; centennial; cinquecento; dean; deca-; decade; decagon; Decalogue; Decameron; decapod; decathlon; December; decennial; deci-; decile; decimal; decimate; decimation; decuple; decussate; denarius; denier (n.) "French coin;" dicker; dime; dinar; doyen; dozen; duodecimal; duodecimo; eighteen; fifteen; fourteen; hecatomb; hendeca-; hundred; icosahedron; nineteen; nonagenarian; octogenarian; Pentecost; percent; quattrocento; Septuagint; sexagenarian; seventeen; sixteen; ten; tenth; thirteen; thousand; tithe; -ty (1).

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit dasa, Avestan dasa, Armenian tasn, Greek deka, Latin decem (source of Spanish diez, French dix), Old Church Slavonic deseti, Lithuanian dešimt, Old Irish deich, Breton dek, Welsh deg, Albanian djetu, Old English ten, Old High German zehan, Gothic taihun "ten."

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    ten
    "1 more than nine, twice five; the number which is one more than nine; a symbol representing this number;" Old English ten (Mercian), tien (West Saxon), adjective and noun, from Proto-Germanic *tehun (source also of Old Saxon tehan, Old Norse tiu, Danish ti, Old Frisian tian, Old
    X
    The entire entry for X in Johnson's dictionary (1756) is: "X is a letter, which, though found in Saxon words, begins no word in the English language." Most English words beginning in -x- are of Greek origin (see chi) or modern commercial coinages. East Anglian in 14c. showed a te
    Harlem
    The black population grew rapidly in the decade after World War I. Related: Harlemese....
    nineties
    1857 as the years of someone's life between 90 and 99; from 1848 as the tenth decade of years in a given century; 1849 with...In U.S., gay nineties in reference to the same decade is attested from 1927, and was the title of a regular nostalgia feature...
    forties
    1843 as the years of someone's life between 40 and 49; from 1840 as the fifth decade of years in a given century....
    fin de siecle
    joyous youth, and vigorous maturity, to die with the expiration of the hundredth year, after being afflicted in its last decade...
    car
    The extension to "automobile" is by 1896, but between 1831 to the first decade of 20c. the cars meant "railroad train."...
    's
    suffix forming the genitive or possessive singular case of most Modern English nouns; its use gradually was extended in Middle English from Old English -es, the most common genitive inflection of masculine and neuter nouns (such as dæg "day," genitive dæges "day's"). The "-es" pr
    century
    1530s, "one hundred" (of anything), from Latin centuria "group of one hundred" of things of one kind (including a measure of land and a division of the Roman army, one-sixteenth of a legion, headed by a centurion), from centum "hundred" (see hundred) on analogy of decuria "a comp
    year
    Old English gear (West Saxon), ger (Anglian) "year," from Proto-Germanic *jēr "year" (source also of Old Saxon, Old High German jar, Old Norse ar, Danish aar, Old Frisian ger, Dutch jaar, German Jahr, Gothic jer "year"), from PIE *yer-o-, from root *yer- "year, season" (source al

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