Progress in science and industry is constantly demanding new terms and one of the latest of these is the word "decibel," coined by telephone engineers to describe the efficiency of telephone circuits. It is a substitute for the phrase "transmission unit." The actual unit decided upon was first called "bel," after the inventor of the telephone. The bel, however, is larger than is needed in practice, and, therefore, a unit one-tenth as large was adopted by engineers and named the decibel. ["Popular Mechanics," May 1929]
deci-, 十分之一。bel, 音量单位，来自19世纪苏格兰电话设计工程师Alexander Bell.
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：decibel 词源，decibel 含义。
美国发明家和企业家亚历山大•贝尔（Alexander Bell）被人普遍认为是电话的发明者。为了纪念他，人们用他的姓氏Bell作为衡量声音强度的单位，记为bel（贝尔）。由于bel这个单位太过粗略而不能充分描述我们对声音的感觉，人们将bel的十分之一作为常用单位，称为decibel（分贝）。前缀deci-就是“十分之一”的意思。
decibel：['desɪbel] n.分贝
bel：[bel] n.贝尔