Etymograph

English

decagram

Decagram comes from French décagramme ‘decagram / decagramme’, from gramme ‘gram’, and ultimately from Ancient Greek γράμμα ‘a small weight’.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγράμμα1‘a small weight’
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentgramme2‘gram’
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentdécagramme3‘decagram / decagramme’
  4. Englishtodaydecagram3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, French gramme
  2. 2 Wiktionary, French décagramme
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English decagram

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγράμμαWiktionary, French gramme‘a small weight’
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentgrammeWiktionary, French décagramme‘gram’
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentdécagrammeWiktionary, English decagram‘decagram / decagramme’
  4. EnglishtodaydecagramWiktionary, English decagram

Equivalent to deca- + gram

Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ ‘ten’

Proto-Hellenic *dékə ‘ten’

Ancient Greek δέκα ‘ten’

Ancient Greek δεκάς ‘a group of ten, decade’

Late Latin decas ‘(set of) ten’

English deca-

Ancient Greek γράμμα ‘a small weight, a scruple’

French gramme

English gram

Linked words

through Ancient Greek γράμμα ‘a small weight’

grimoire, gramma, 14 more

through French gramme ‘gram’

kilogram, 3 more

Today it means

noun An SI unit of mass equal to 10¹ grams. Symbol: dag

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “decagram”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for French gramme, French décagramme. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek γράμμα / decagram

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