decuman means large; chief; applied to an extraordinary billow, supposed by some to be every tenth in sequence. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
decuman is pronounced /ˈdɛkjʊmən/.
Why “decuman” is a great word
DECUMAN — [Adjective] Of immense size, particularly describing a vast, surging wave, or pertaining to the main gate of a Roman military encampment. From Latin decumānus ("of the tenth, large"), from decem ("ten"). First attested in English in the mid-17th century. Unlike "colossal," which suggests a general, awe-inspiring scale, or "billow," which merely names the surge itself, decuman is a precise, literary term for a specific and overwhelming magnitude. It is the heaving, green wall of water that blots out the horizon; the rusted iron hinge of a gate built for a legion's march; the deep, subsonic rumble that precedes the breaking force—a word for the architectural and oceanic thresholds of power, where scale becomes fate.
adj
- Large; chief; applied to an extraordinary billow, supposed by some to be every tenth in sequence.“decuman billows”
- Connected with the principal gate of an Ancient Roman camp, near which the tenth cohort of the legion was stationed.
noun
- An extraordinarily large billow.“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, […]”