Decuriae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Plural form referring to groups or units of ten; a term used historically to denote divisions or sets of ten persons or things; referring to multiple tens as a counting or organizational method
2. Denoting several clusters each consisting of ten members; historically applied to categorize or organize entities in groups of ten; describing multiple sets grouped by the number ten
3. Pertaining to numerous groups made up of ten individuals; used in historical or administrative contexts to indicate multiple tens; signifying more than one set formed by ten elements or people

Etymology: "Decuriae" is the Latin plural of "decuria", a group of ten. Roman writers used it for small units of ten men, most famously the ten-man squads of the Roman army and the decuriae of the Roman equestrian and civic bodies. The word is built from "decem", ten, which is also the source of English "decimal", "decade" and "December", the tenth month of the old Roman calendar that began in March. The "-uria" ending, found in other Latin nouns for divisions and groups, marks the word as a collective noun. Because it stayed a Latin term rather than passing into everyday English, its use in English is largely confined to historical and classical writing, where it describes these Roman units. The English word "decury" is a rare borrowing of the same Latin noun, and the plural form shown here is the one a reader will meet in Latin texts about Roman organisation.

Synonyms: decades, tens