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Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 19:33:54 +0200
From: Julien Pourtet <yulinux@gmx.net>
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Subject: Re: adjective form of decade
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Douglas Sederberg wrote:
> In article <40b49d90$0$19642$626a14ce@news.free.fr>, Loki Harfagr
> <lars.hummigeret@yahuu.no> wrote:
>
>
>>
>>
>>>I are a engineer.
>>>
>>>Is there an adjective form of the word decade? I want to describe
>>>something that happens only once in ten years.
>>
>>"Decennial" is the word you need.
>>Remember that "decade" implies 10 *days* not 10 years
>>though many people seem to propagate the ill use :D)
>>
>
> If this usage is ill, it seems everyone in the USA is sick. I can't
> think of a single instance where 'decade' has meant 10 days and not 10
> years. It may be some official meaning, maybe in French, but if it does
> mean 10 days, it's never used that way in ordinary English.
> From an on-line dictionary:
>
> DECADE (from Gr. ~ka, ten), a group or series containing ten members,
> particularly a period of ten years. In the new calendar made at the
> time of the French Revolution in 1793, a decade of ten days took the
> place of the week. The word is also used of the divisions containing
> ten books or parts into which the history of Livy was divided.
Seems like both of you are right ;)
From online dictionaries:
"Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)"
Decade Dec"ade, n. F. d'ecade, L. decas, -adis, fr. Gr. ?,
fr. de`ka ten. See Ten.
A group or division of ten; esp., a period of ten years; a
decennium; as, a decade of years or days; a decade of
soldiers; the second decade of Livy. Written also decad.
During this notable decade of years. --Gladstone.
"WordNet (r) 2.0"
decade
n 1: a period of 10 years syn: decennary, decennium
2: the cardinal number that is the sum of nine and one; the
base of the decimal system syn: ten, 10, X, tenner
Well it seems that "decade" is nowadays mostly used with the meaning of
"a group of ten years".
Hope it helps :)
--
Julien Pourtet
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