What Decameron Means, Answered

Netflix’s The Decameron is here, eight episodes of 14th century comedy drama, featuring a group of misfits hiding in a villa to dodge the plague. But where does its title come from? What does Decameron actually mean? Here’s the answer.

Here’s What Decameron Means and Where it Comes From

Decameron is a word that was made up by 14th century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio for his book The Decameron. Derived from Greek, it was supposed to mean “Ten Day Event”; you might have spotted the similarity to the word decathlon.

The series takes its basic premise, of several people trapped together in a villa, from The Decameron book. It also gets its 14th century setting from the book. However, that’s basically where the similarities end.

Boccaccio’s The Decameron is an anthology of one hundred stories, told by the residents of the villa. If you’ve watched any anthologies, like V/H/S/ or Vault of Horror for example, you’ll be familiar with the premise, though the book contains way, way more stories than any of those movies. The situation in the villa is the framing story, and it’s secondary to the tales being told.

However, that’s not the case in Netflix’s The Decameron. Here, the situation in the villa is the story. There’s romance, comedy, and drama, but that doesn’t derive from someone sitting down and telling a story. It comes from the characters themselves and the situation they find themselves in.

Actress Jessica Plummer, who plays Filomena in the show, describes The Decameron as “Think, like, Love Island, but back in the day. A lot of drama, a lot of sex, a lot of, yeah, craziness.” If you roll your eyes at Love Island, don’t worry, it’s not that bad. But it’s barely connected to the book of the same name.

So, decameron is a made-up word that’s supposed to mean ten day event, and it comes from The Decameron, the book the show is very loosely based on.