decuman

noun /ˈdɛkjʊmən/

1. An extraordinarily large billow.

   obsolete

   Looking up suddenly, I found mine eyes / Confronted with the minster's vast repose. / Silent and gray as forest-leaguered cliff / Left inland by the ocean's slow retreat, / […] / Remembering shocks of surf that clomb and fell, / Spume-sliding down the baffled decuman, […]

Where it comes from

From Latin decumānus (“of the tenth, and by metonymy, large”), from decem (“ten”).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry decuman (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← decubationdecumbiture →

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