Ethopee of Sar Peladan “The roman decadence” and the meaning of the notion “decadence” in the 1880's in France

The article deals with the question how semantically concept “decadence” developed in the last third of the 19th century. The author starts with the word’s genesis in French and describes the changes in its value over time, until the 1880s that paid particular attention to the period, when it could be called a turning point in terms of the semantic development “décadence” concept. It became of many figures of art and culture and has become a subject of debate in literary circles. The desire to understand what is included in the concept itself, has identified the main task of this work: to establish what the word “decadence” specifically for contemporary literary process of this era and how they define it.