Etymology

decimation

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Today it means: The killing or punishment of every tenth person, usually by lot. Full definition →

Latin decimātiō
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromdecimātiō
  2. English todaydecimation

Borrowed from Latin decimātiō, a punishment where every 10th man in a unit would be stoned to death by the men who were spared. Used by the Romans to keep order in their military. Compare septimation and vicesimation.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.