Etymograph

English

decimetre

Decimetre comes from French décimètre ‘decimetre (UK) / decimeter (US)’, from mètre ‘metre/meter’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ‘to measure’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meh₁-1‘to measure’reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμέτρον2‘something used to measure: measure, rule, weight’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmetrum2‘a measure’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentmètre3‘metre/meter’
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentdécimètre4‘decimetre (UK) / decimeter (US)’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1956decimetre4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek μέτρον
  2. 2 Wiktionary, French mètre
  3. 3 Wiktionary, French décimètre
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English decimetre
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1956, C. van Duijn, Diseases of Fishes: “If the aquarium is placed where it receives insufficient…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meh₁-Wiktionary, Ancient Greek μέτρον‘to measure’reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμέτρονWiktionary, French mètre‘something used to measure: measure, rule, weight’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmetrumWiktionary, French mètre‘a measure’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentmètreWiktionary, French décimètre‘metre/meter’
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentdécimètreWiktionary, English decimetre‘decimetre (UK) / decimeter (US)’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1956decimetreWiktionary, English decimetre. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1956, C. van Duijn, Diseases of Fishes: “If the aquarium is placed where it receives insufficient…”

Equivalent to deci- + metre

Proto-Italic *dekəmos ‘tenth’

Latin decimus ‘tenth’

English deci-

Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ‘to measure’

Ancient Greek μέτρον ‘measure, rule, length, size, poetic metre’

Latin metrum

French mètre ‘metre/meter’

English metre

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ‘to measure’

month, moon, moral, measure, meal, sunny, dimensional, dimension, moody, immense, meta, mesa, menstrual, asymmetric, commensurate, mensa, firman, moodiness, menses, mete, metis, 59 more

through Ancient Greek μέτρον ‘something used to measure: measure, rule, weight’

parameter, geometric, symmetric, asymmetry, metrology, metra, 39 more

through Latin metrum ‘a measure’

metric, madder, 8 more

through French mètre ‘metre/meter’

meter, kilometre, centimetre, 6 more

Today it means

noun An SI unit of length equal to 10⁻¹ metres. Symbol: dm

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “decimetre”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Ancient Greek μέτρον, French mètre, French décimètre. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- / decimetre

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