Evidence for DECIMATE ('one in ten')

[Douglas G. Wilson]

Another example where "decimate" apparently means "kill 10%" (non-military):

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http://books.google.com/books?id=AA9Zr99e4jsC&pg=PA77&dq=%22nearly+decimated%22+date:1660-1870&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0#PPA77,M1

1851: <<In the town of Dumfries, where drunkenness exceedingly
abounded, this disease nearly decimated the population -- sweeping
away _one_ out of every _eleven._>>

Reference is to cholera.

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-- Doug Wilson


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