centesimation

plural centesimations

1. countablerareuncountablegovernmentThe selection by lot of every hundredth man (of an army or group of prisoners or mutineers) for execution.

   1897, The Columbian Cyclopedia VI, “centesimate” To inflict the punishment of centesimation.

   4 more examples

   CENTESIMATION, a milder kind of military puniſhment, in caſes of deſertion, mutiny, and the like, when only every hundredth man is executed.

   1763, A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, second edition, page 522

   Sometimes the criminals were decimated by lot, as appears in Polybius, Tacitus, Plutarch, Appian, Dio, Julius Capitolinus, who also mentions a centesimation.

   page 413

   Centesimation…carries only one-tenth the sensation value of “decimation”.

   1980, Stephen Spender, Irving Kristol, editors, Encounter, LIV, page 71

   Decimate, to select by lot and put to death every tenth man of (a captured army or body of prisoners or mutineers) […] Compare 1/100: centesimation.

   1992, Laurence Urdang, Three Toed Sloths and Seven League Boots, page 151