From Proto-Italic * dekem , from Proto-Indo-European * déḱm̥ . Cognates include Sanskrit दश ( daśa ) , Ancient Greek δέκα ( déka ) , Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿𐌽 ( taihun ) and Old English tīen (whence English ten ).
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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCALNo exact match for “decem” in this partial English subset. That does not mean the full research corpus—or linguistic scholarship—has no record. Check the original dictionary entry ↗
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More sources for this spelling
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Lewis’s Elementary Latin Dictionary
1890 American Book Company edition; pinned Perseus XML digitizationdecem
This word is outside the curated dossier collection. Here is the dictionary’s etymology, with its language and revision preserved. These claims have not yet passed *SET-U’s graph review.
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015
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
nounexact historical form
December
The twelfth month in the modern calendar; its inherited Latin name literally identifies it as the tenth month.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjective · nounexact historical form
decimal
Based on ten or tenths; borrowed through French and Medieval Latin from the Latin family of decem, “ten.”
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verbexact historical form
decimate
To destroy or reduce drastically; borrowed from a Latin verb built on “tenth” and first used in English for killing every tenth member of a group.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounexact historical form
dime
The United States ten-cent coin, named with an older English and French word for a tenth part or tithe.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun, adjective, pronoundossier summary
ten
The inherited English cardinal number, carried through Old English and Germanic from the Indo-European numeral also reflected in Latin decem.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗024
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Latin / Indo-European
decem
ten
- DATE
- Latin antiquity
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 4
Present-Day English / Indo-European
December
the twelfth month of the Gregorian calendar
- DATE
- before the 12th century–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Latin / Indo-European
December
the tenth month
- DATE
- Latin antiquity
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Middle English / Indo-European
Decembre
the last month of the year
- DATE
- Middle English
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
037
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 3
openprobableword prefix
Did English receive December through Old English or French?
The reviewed source allows either Old English or Anglo-French transmission from Latin and does not choose between them.
resolvedestablishedword prefix
Why does the twelfth month mean tenth?
The Latin name belongs to an early Roman year beginning in March, when December occupied the tenth position. Calendar reform changed the position while the name persisted.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Is English ten borrowed from Latin decem?
No. English ten is inherited through Old English and Germanic, while Latin decem is a cognate from the same Indo-European numeral.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 4
RANK 139GRADE Aranked-word prefix
The twelfth month literally means tenth.
The name preserves a Roman year that began in March. The calendar position moved; the inherited Latin name did not.
RANK 93GRADE Aranked reveal
Decimal is named for tenths, not the point.
The word runs through the tenth-part family to Latin decem “ten.” The decimal point is a notation used by decimals, not the ancestor that named them.
RANK 140GRADE Aranked reveal
A dime is literally a tenth.
The coin name reuses a medieval tenth-part word from Anglo-French and Latin decima. It sits in the same deep numeral family as decimal, decimate, December, and inherited English ten.
RANK 157GRADE Aranked reveal
The one-in-ten origin is real—and the usage scold is still wrong.
English began with the tenth-member punishment sense, then broadened the word within decades. Etymology records change; it does not veto it.
041
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
052
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
A bibliographic note in John Harris’s Lexicon technicum names December while pointing readers to the December 1682 Acta Eruditorum.
December / December / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciencesattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
English lexicographic first-use report for December
December / December / before the 12th century
December — Word Historyattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗06
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