English
decide
Decide comes from Old French decider, from Latin dēcīdō ‘to cut off, decide’, from dē- + caedō ‘to cut’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēcīdō1‘to cut off; to decide’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400decider1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500deciden1‘to make a ruling or judgement’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591decide1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English decide
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; / Betwixt…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēcīdōWiktionary, English decide‘to cut off; to decide’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400deciderWiktionary, English decide
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500decidenWiktionary, English decide‘to make a ruling or judgement’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591decideWiktionary, English decide. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; / Betwixt…”
A compound of dē ‘down from’ + caedō ‘cut’
Proto-Indo-European *de ‘to, towards’
Proto-Indo-European *déh₁ ‘towards’
Proto-Italic *dē ‘from’
Latin dē ‘down from’
Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd- ‘to cut, hew’
Proto-Indo-European *kh₂éydeti
Proto-Italic *kaidō ‘to cut, hew, fell’
Latin caedō ‘cut’
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with decide, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Latin dēcīdō ‘cut off, decide’
3 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
verb To resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “decide”. 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 / Latin dēcīdō / decide