definition for decorous
Decorous for a time had another meaning as wellâfitting or appropriateâbut that now-obsolete sense seems to have existed for only a few decades in the 17th century. Decorous derives from the Latin word decorus, an adjective created from the noun decor, meaning beauty or grace. Decor is akin to the Latin verb decÄre (to be fitting), which is the source of our adjective decent. It is only fitting, then, that decent can be a synonym of decorous.