decimationn.
/ˌdɛsᵻˈmeɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌdɛsəˈmeɪʃ(ə)n/ 1. The exaction or payment of a tithe, or of any tax of one tenth; spec. the 10% tax levied by Oliver Cromwell on Royalist estates in 1655 to pay for the militia units of his new Major Generals. Also: the tithe or tax itself. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > impost, due, or tax > fixed proportion dues or taxes > [noun] > tithe
tithingOE
decimaa1325
dime1377
decimationc1460
tenth1587
tithe1600
in-teinds1621
decimate1641
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > impost, due, or tax > fixed proportion dues or taxes > [noun] > tithe > exaction of
decimationc1460
tithing1528
edecimation1693
c1460 (a1449) J. Lydgate Legend St. Austin (Harl. 2255) l. 3 in Minor Poems (1911) i. 193 (MED) The original ground of devout offryng, Callyd of clerkys iust decimacioun, In pleyn Ynglissh trewe and iust tithyng.
1528 Rede me & be nott Wrothe sig. diijv To forge excommunicacions For tythes and decimacions Is their continuall exercyse.
1656 W. Prynne Summary Coll. Rights Eng. Freemen 59 These Refarmers [sic.]..exacted the Tithes of all formerly sequestred persons, their heirs and Widows estates..by a late Decimation.
1675 J. Worlidge Systema Agriculturæ (ed. 2) vii. 98 One that would not improve a very good piece of ground..with Fruit-trees, because the Parson would have the decimation of it.
1738 D. Neal Hist. Puritans IV. 123 To sequester such as did not pay their Decimation.
1772 W. Pennington Free Inq. Pluralities 70 His avarice made him load the benefices of the Clergy with new and unusual decimations.
1827 R. Pollok Course of Time I. ii. 75 The priest collected tithes, and pleaded rights Of decimation to the very last.
1869 W. Molyneux Burton-on-Trent 40 This decimation was under a punishment of excommunication by Pope Alexander IV.
1932 Trans. Royal Hist. Soc. 4th Ser. 15 183 They claimed exemption from the decimation tax on the ground that the land belonged to others.
2005 Eng. Hist. Rev. 120 1119 The second half of the Address reflects on King Aethelwulf of Wessex's decimation of 854-5 in which he gave a tenth of his lands to holy churches.
2. † b. Selection of every tenth person or thing for any purpose; an instance of this. Obsolete.
a. Chiefly Roman History. With reference to military punishment: the selection by lot of every tenth man to be put to death, typically as a punitive sanction in cases of desertion, mutiny, or other crime by a body of soldiers, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > [noun] > execution of one in ten
tithing?a1475
decimation1579
1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 988 Antonius..executed the Decimation [Fr. decimation]. For he deuided his men by ten legions, and then of them he put the tenth legion to death, on whom the lot fell.
1617 S. Collins Epphata to F. T. i. ii. 99. In the Romane discipline when offendours were many, they vsed a course call'd Decimation, to chastise euery tenth person onely, for the misdemeanour of a multitude.
1661 W. Howell Inst. Gen. Hist. ii. iv. 452 This decimation being an usual punishment amongst the Romans, of such as had forsaken or lost their Colours.
1797 Monthly Rev. July 346 The writer of this letter, in his zeal for restoring discipline, says that such actions as have lately been committed should be punished with decimation.
1827 Edinb. Rev. Mar. 276 Whether decimation be a convenient mode of military execution.
1896 Classical Rev. 10 228/1 Decimation was employed by Crassus during the servile war.
1920 Classical Philol. 15 169 After Scipio had reproved the mutinous soldiers, he offered them pardon. There was no decimation of the division.
2009 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 11 June 50/2 Decimation, the practice of shooting men chosen by nomination or by lot..became commonplace in 1917.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > ten > [noun] > selection of every tenth
decimation1632
1632 J. Story tr. Short Surv. Sweden 36 The foot forces are culled and pickt out from among the choicest youth..by decimation, or taking every tenth man.
1742 W. Warburton Divine Legation Moses (ed. 2) II. App. 9 Of a hundred Arguments from Reason and Authority..he has not ventured so much as at a Decimation.
1798 H. Grove Disc., Tracts & Poems IV. i. vi. ii. 102 For say this [divine] love proceeds by a decimation, taking one out of ten, then there will be nine to one against every single person, that he is not of the happy number.
1859 On Necessity of Gen. Arming in Eng. 22 The public wrong is not less general in principle, for being only inflicted by decimation.
c. The death or destruction of one person or thing in every ten; a reduction by one tenth.In later use usually with an indication that the more general sense 3 is not intended, esp. by use of literal.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > slaughter > [noun] > of one out of ten
tithing?a1475
decimation1650
1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine iv. iii. 52 The number of the slain were about three thousand men. A great sum in it self, yet divided amongst six hundred thousand, it amounteth but just to the twentieth part of decimation, taking but one out of two hundred, and five out of a thousand.
1702 C. Mather Magnalia Christi vii. 112/1 In the things that have been done to our Captives, the great Lord of Hosts..makes a sort of Decimation among the Offenders, and what he does by some, he declares what he might justly do to all the rest.
1792 Parl. Reg. 1781–96 XXXII. 394 Though..one tenth [of slaves] die on the passage, and one third of the less happy remain within three years, gentlemen would attempt to persuade us that this quadruple decimation, this sacrifice of forty in every hundred, is no punishment to them.
1828 Gales & Seaton's Reg. Deb. Congr. 23 Jan. 1103 Ten men are all the survivors in a foundered ship; they have no provisions; they agree to a decimation by lot. The death of one preserves the rest.
1863 All Year Round 26 Sept. 105/1 The annual deaths at Cawnpore, chiefly from fever, dysentery, diarrhoea, and cholera, have been as high as ninety-one in a thousand,—one man in eleven, or a very near approach to literal decimation.
1901 Pop. Sci. Monthly Oct. 563 In these cases it is often not merely a decimation which results, but it may be a destruction of more than half of the entire population.
1996 Guardian (Nexis) 9 Nov. 16 Value-retailer Kwik Save was reported to be considering a literal decimation of its branch network, with the closure of 100 of its 1,000 stores.
2006 Daily Tel. 10 Oct. 25/3 This does not give enough genetic evidence for even a 10 per cent cull (that is, a decimation), except in parts of Norfolk and the Fens, which reached about that level of intrusion.
d. The death or destruction of nine in every ten people or things; a reduction to one tenth. Chiefly historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > [noun] > execution of nine out of ten
tithing?a1475
decimation1654
1654 J. Trapp Comm. Minor Prophets (Amos v. 5) 251 Here's a wofull decimation, purporting a very great paucity of people: such as was threatned, Deut. 28.62. a tenth man onely shall be left, if that.
1696 J. Tyrrell Gen. Hist. Eng. I. vi. 36 The Monks and Laity were decimated after a strange manner; so that out of every Ten persons, only the Tenth was to be kept alive;..only Four Monks and about Eight hundred Laymen remain'd after this Decimation.
1708 J. Collier Eccl. Hist. Great Brit. I. iii. xi. 210/1 The Danes being Masters of the Town, put the Burghers under a Decimation, and destroy'd nine Parts in ten.
1828 W. C. Smith Rambles round Guildford 215 This was effected by a decimation, by which a tenth only were preserved, and these were again subjected to another decimation; so that out of 600 Normans that accompanied the prince, not more than six escaped the fury of these merciless barbarians.
1867 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest I. v. 386 A systematic decimation of the whole city. By decimation is here meant, the execution, not of one in ten, but of nine in ten.
1989 S. J. Gould Wonderful Life i. 47 (footnote) A 90 percent chance of death would be a good estimate..decimation is the right metaphor for the fate of the Burgess Shale Fauna—random elimination of most lineages.
2006 T. Frymer-Kensky Stud. Bible & Feminist Crit. xxi. 311 The portion of the nation comprising the one-tenth that is to survive decimation will not be chosen according to its..higher proportion of righteous people than the nine-tenths of the nation that is destroyed.
3.
a. More generally: the action of destroying or removing a large proportion of a population, crop, etc., as by disease or war; widespread destruction; devastation.On usage, see note at decimate v. 1c.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > slaughter > [noun]
sleightc893
wal-slaught?a900
qualeeOE
deathOE
swordc1000
morthOE
slaughta1225
destroyingc1300
drepingc1300
martyrdomc1325
murderc1325
mortc1330
sleighterc1330
slaughter1338
iron and firea1387
murraina1387
manslaughtera1400
martyre?a1400
quella1425
occision?a1430
decease1513
destruction1526
slaughting1535
butchery?1536
butchering1572
massacrea1578
slaughterdom1592
slaughtering1597
carnage1600
massacring1600
slaughtery1604
internecion1610
decimationa1613
destroy1616
trucidation1623
stragea1632
sword-wrack1646
interemption1656
carnifice1657
panolethry1668
butcher work1808
bloodbath1814
populicide1824
man-slaughtering1851
battue1864
mass murder1917
genocide1944
overkill1957
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > [noun] > widespread destruction
decimationa1613
panolethry1668
holocaust1833
pan-destruction1884
a1613 T. Overbury Obseruations Xvii. Prouinces (1626) 2 The Duke of Alva being sent, inflamed them more, vpon attempting to bring in the Inquisition and Spanish Decimation.
1658 T. Willsford Natures Secrets 192 Envy and confusion in Arms, put the world in an uproar, the sword licensed in the hands of Furies, making a rude decimation of those who had espaced both Plague and Famine.
1827 W. Scott Life Napoleon I. xvii. 248 All were made sensible that another decimation of the Legislative Body approached.
1871 Daily News 21 Sept. In situations where their decimation by smart rifle practice would be almost a foregone conclusion.
1918 Methodist Rev. May 498 It seems as though this nation is destined for complete decimation at the hands of the ‘unspeakable Turk’.
1974 N.Y. Times 10 Aug. 33 A year-long study of the trees and shrubs of the city to overcome tree decimation caused by numerous hazards such as automobile exhaust, dog urine and limited varieties planted.
2001 Org. Gardening Jan. 11/1 Ensure an adequate carrot fly barrier to prevent total decimation.
b. The destruction or ruin of an immaterial thing; the drastic reduction of the strength or effectiveness of something.
ΚΠ
1916 Responsible Govt. Jan. 62 The changed attitude of the people toward the government is found in the gradual decimation of executive power on the one hand and the increasing number of limitations placed on the legislature on the other.
1966 Bull. Atomic Scientists Mar. 23/1 The decimation of the government's own control and evaluation function follows close upon the heels of this servomechanism.
1998 K. Eshun More Brilliant than Sun ix. 158 Nelson George dates the Death..of Soul culture..to '72, the era of Blaxploitation, the state decimation of Black Power and Nixon's election.
2014 Winchester (Va.) Star 22 Jan. a4/1 Seldom, if ever, have we seen the premise, or alleged promise, of nationalized health care so thoroughly or convincingly countered, to the point of decimation.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.c1460