decimation

Meaning

Noun

• The killing or punishment of every tenth person, usually by lot.
• The killing or destruction of any large portion of a population.
• A tithe or the act of tithing.
• The creation of a new sequence comprising only every nth element of a source sequence.

Related

Similar words

• tithing
• See tithe

Origin

• 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.