646: dean, doyen, decimate Sep 14, 2016

The dean of a school or a college may be tasked with overseeing hundreds or more students, but it did not use to be this way. 'Dean', as would not be uncommon for a word belonging to the world of academia originates from late Latin 'decanus' meaning ‘chief of a group of ten’ which is ultimately from 'decem' for ‘ten.’ Another word, 'doyen', comes from a more recent derivative of 'dean' than Latin; it comes from the Old French 'deien'. Over time, that word, as well as 'decimate' which originally meant to kill one out of every ten, they lost their connection to any specific numbers.