decimation
English
Etymology
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.
Noun
decimation (plural decimations)
- (strictly) The killing or punishment of every tenth person, usually by lot.
- 1607, William Shakespeare, The Life of Timon of Athens, Act V, Scene v:
- By decimation and a tithed death,
... take thou the destin'd tenth.
- By decimation and a tithed death,
- 1607, William Shakespeare, The Life of Timon of Athens, Act V, Scene v:
- (generally) The killing or destruction of any large portion of a population.
- 1702: Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana - And the whole army had cause to enquire into their own rebellions, when they saw the Lord of Hosts, with a dreadful decimation, taking off so many of our brethren by the worst of executioners.
- A tithe or the act of tithing.
- (mathematics) The creation of a new sequence comprising only every nth element of a source sequence.
- (telecommunications) A digital signal-processing technique for reducing the number of samples in a discrete-time signal.
Synonyms
Coordinate terms
- (proportionate reduction, by single aliquot part): quintation (1/5), septimation (1/7), vicesimation (1/20), tricesimation (1/30), centesimation (1/100)
Related terms
Translations
selection of every tenth person for death or other punishment
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killing or destruction of a large portion of a population
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tithing — see tithing
creation of a new sequence comprising every nth element of the original
digital signal-processing technique
References
- The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1914
Anagrams
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