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013
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
adjective · nounexact headword
decimal
Based on ten or tenths; borrowed through French and Medieval Latin from the Latin family of decem, “ten.”
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
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, pronouncontrarian claim
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 ↗023
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Present-Day English / Indo-European
decimal
based on ten or tenths; a base-ten number
- DATE
- 1608–today
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
French / Indo-European
décimal
of tenths; decimal
- DATE
- Early Modern French
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Medieval Latin / Indo-European
decimālis
of a tenth part; of a tithe
- DATE
- Medieval Latin
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
035
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 2
resolvedestablishedexact word
Is decimal named after the decimal point?
No. The adjective and noun come from the Latin tenth/ten family; the visible point is part of later notation, not the word’s ancestor.
resolvedestablishedexact word
Did the decimal noun and adjective enter together?
Merriam-Webster reports the adjective in 1608 and the noun in 1623. These are lexicographic first-use reports, not inspected objects.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 3
RANK 93GRADE Aexact ranked word
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 95GRADE Acontrarian claim
Ten and decimal are cousins, not borrower and source.
English ten is inherited through Germanic; decimal is learned through Latin. Both independently continue the reconstructed Indo-European numeral family.
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.
041
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
052
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
John Harris’s Lexicon technicum prints DECIMAL in the head phrase DECIMAL Fraction and begins its mathematical definition.
decimal / decimal / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciencesexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
English lexicographic first-use record for decimal as an adjective
decimal / decimal / 1608
Decimal — Word Historyexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗06
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