BIBLIOGRAPHIC IDENTITYmw-dime

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historical dictionarymw-dime

Dime — Definition and Word History

AUTHOR / EDITOR: Merriam-Webster Editors
YEAR: 2026
PUBLISHER: Merriam-Webster
DOI: Not recorded
SOURCE TYPE: historical dictionary
EXTERNAL RECORD: OPEN ORIGINAL ↗

5CANONICAL EDGES

1WITNESSES

2COMPARISONS

0CONTEXT LINKS

1RANKED REVEALS

1DISPUTES

4JOURNEY STAGES

1WORD DOSSIERS

CONTRARIAN TRUTH CLAIMS

RANKED REVEALS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE

RANK 140GRADE Asupports

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.

*dekm̥

*dekm̥ → decem → decimus → decima → disme / dime → dime → dime

Word History: Etymology and First Known Use

Documents the tenth-part ancestry and 1786 coin sense.

dime dossier ↗truth record ↗85UNVEILING

SCHOLARLY DISAGREEMENT

DISPUTE POSITIONS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE

resolvedsupportsestablished

Was dime invented as a coin name in 1786?

The coin sense is reported from 1786, but the word itself already existed in Middle English and Anglo-French for a tenth part or tithe.

Word History: Etymology and First Known Use

Separates the medieval tenth-word ancestry from the 1786 coin horizon.

dime dossier ↗dispute record ↗

CANONICAL RELATIONSHIP CLAIMS

EDGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE

EDGE 171supportsestablished

decimus → decem

Latin → Latin · ordinal derivation

SOUND: Latin decimus is the ordinal formation corresponding to decem.
MEANING: The cardinal “ten” becomes ordinal “tenth.”
SCHOLAR / EDITOR: Merriam-Webster Editors

Word History: Etymology

Connects decimus “tenth” with decem “ten.”

OPEN THE PERMANENT CLAIM ↗

EDGE 239supportsestablished

dime → dime

Present-Day English → Middle English · semantic specialization

SOUND: Modern dime preserves the older spelling while English pronunciation developed to /daɪm/.
MEANING: A general tenth-part or tithe word is applied specifically to a coin worth one tenth of a dollar.
SCHOLAR / EDITOR: Merriam-Webster Editors

Word History: Etymology and First Known Use

Documents the older tenth-part word and reports 1786 for the coin sense.

OPEN THE PERMANENT CLAIM ↗

EDGE 240supportsestablished

dime → disme / dime

Middle English → Anglo-French · borrowing

SOUND: Middle English dime adapts Anglo-French disme or dime, including loss of the written consonant in the simplified form.
MEANING: The meaning remains a tenth part or tithe.
SCHOLAR / EDITOR: Merriam-Webster Editors

Word History: Etymology

Traces Middle English to Anglo-French disme and dime.

OPEN THE PERMANENT CLAIM ↗

EDGE 241supportsestablished

disme / dime → decima

Anglo-French → Latin · romance development

SOUND: Anglo-French disme and dime continue Latin decima through regular Romance reduction and spelling change.
MEANING: The tenth-part and tithe meaning remains central.
SCHOLAR / EDITOR: Merriam-Webster Editors

Word History: Etymology

Traces the French forms to Latin decima.

OPEN THE PERMANENT CLAIM ↗

EDGE 242supportsestablished

decima → decimus

Latin → Latin · inflectional derivation

SOUND: Latin decima is the feminine form of decimus.
MEANING: The ordinal adjective “tenth” is substantivized as a tenth part or tithe.
SCHOLAR / EDITOR: Merriam-Webster Editors

Word History: Etymology

Identifies decima as the feminine of decimus.

OPEN THE PERMANENT CLAIM ↗

LEXICAL ATTESTATIONS