Where does “doyen” come from?
Doyen comes from French doyen, from Old French deien, from Latin decem meaning "ten," with the suffix -us or -um, ultimately from Proto-Italic -os.
doyen (English): A commander in charge of ten men; The senior, or...
Definitions
- A commander in charge of ten men; The senior, or...
Ancestry of “doyen”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | French | doyen | dean; senior member, doyen |
| 2 | Old French | deien | — |
| 3 | Latin | decānus | chief of ten people (in various contexts) |
| 4 | Latin | decem | ten; 10 |
| 5 | Latin | -nus | -an |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -nos | Creates verbal adjectives from verb stems |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -nós | Creates verbal adjectives from roots |