English
decide
Decide comes from Old French decider, from Latin dēcīdō ‘to cut off, decide’, from dē- + caedō ‘to cut’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēcīdō‘to cut off; to decide’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400decider
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500deciden‘to make a ruling or judgement’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591decide
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēcīdō‘to cut off; to decide’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400decider
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500deciden‘to make a ruling or judgement’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591decide
Earliest quotation: 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’
Linked words
through Latin dēcīdō ‘cut off, decide’
Today it means
verb To resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin dēcīdō / decide