decimate: [17] Decimate is a cause célèbre amongst those who apparently believe that words should never change their meanings. The original general signification of its Latin source, the verb decimāre, was the removal or destruction of one tenth (it was derived from Latin decem ‘ten’), and it may perhaps strike the 20th century as odd to have a particular word for such an apparently abstruse operation.
It does, however, arise out of two very specific procedures in the ancient world: the exaction of a tax of one tenth (for which indeed English has the ultimately related word tithe), and the practice in the Roman army of punishing a body of soldiers guilty of some crime such as mutiny by choosing one in ten of them by lot to be put to death. Modern English does not perhaps have much use for a verb with such specialized senses, but the general notion of impassive and indiscriminate slaughter implied in the Roman military use led, apparently as early as the mid- 17th century, to the modern sense ‘kill or destroy most of’. => decimal, ten
decimate (v.)
c. 1600, in reference to the practice of punishing mutinous military units by capital execution of one in every 10, by lot; from Latin decimatus, past participle of decimare (see decimation). Killing one in ten, chosen by lots, from a rebellious city or a mutinous army was a common punishment in classical times. The word has been used (incorrectly, to the irritation of pedants) since 1660s for "destroy a large portion of." Related: Decimated; decimating.
实用例句
1. Silber says the tax rollback would decimate basic services for the needy.
西尔伯说税收的回落可能会大大减少为贫困人口提供的基本服务。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The pollution could decimate the river's thriving population of kingfishers.
污染可能会造成河边大量繁殖的翠鸟大批死亡。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The pollution could decimate the river's thriving population of kingfishers.
污染可能会造成河边大量繁殖的翠鸟大批死亡。
来自辞典例句
4. Many adversities decimate the fluke numbers.
许多很不利的因素可使吸虫数量减少十分之一.
来自辞典例句
5. Her range of weaponry could easily decimate any convoy she encountered.
