Evidence for DECIMATE ('one in ten')

[Joel S. Berson]

Full disclosure:  I do not vote with the prescriptivists.  But --

 From Doug's second group of citations ("kill 10% of", or perhaps
"kill some small proportion of"). it seems one or more should be
added to OED2's sense  "4. transf.  a. To kill, destroy, or remove
one in every ten of", for which -- as Arnold has been arguing -- it
has no examples.  (The examples of sense 4. seem all to be of "b.
rhetorically or loosely. To destroy or remove a large proportion of;
to subject to severe loss, slaughter, or mortality.")

This one is particularly precise:

1866: <<In fact, during his occupation of Vera Cruz from 1858 to
1860, he proved an epidemic many degrees more fatal to churches than
the yellow fever, which decimates the population in the summer
months. For the yellow fever merely takes off one in ten, whereas
Juarez destroyed the nine and left the one.>>

Murray must have known we'd find some eventually!  Arnold wrote:
>James Murray inserted a definition "To kill, destroy, or remove one in
>every ten of" as a bridge between the Roman military sense and the
>'great reduction' sense --
>
>   but he produced no citations to indicate its actual use.
>Apparently _decimate_ has never been so used in English.  (MWDEU)

And the MWDEU should be admonished.

Joel

At 1/7/2008 07:30 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>==========
>
>"Decimate" = "kill 90%":
>
>----------
>
>http://books.google.com/books?id=YUALAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA161&dq=decimate+OR+decimates+OR+decimated+date:1660-1870&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3#PPA161,M1
>
>1837: <<He had the men of Normandy also brought to Gedefort, and
>decimated them; and when the tenth was set apart, hear what felony
>they committed! they decimated that tenth once more, because it
>appeared too many to save.>>
>
>----------
>
>http://books.google.com/books?id=fjEIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA90&dq=decimate+OR+decimates+OR+decimated+date:1660-1870&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3
>
>1853: <<a multitude of monks, and a crowd, consisting not only of
>men, but even women and children as well, were decimated, and nine
>were put to death, while the tenth was reserved alive: ....>>
>
>This is supposedly translated from Latin: I wonder how it read in Latin.
>
>----------
>
>There are more.
>
>==========
>
>"Decimate" = "kill some particular proportion", I think probably =
>"kill 10%": non-military:
>
>----------
>
>http://books.google.com/books?id=g8FdSmhLVZYC&pg=PA244&dq=decimate+OR+decimates+OR+decimated+date:1660-1870&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3
>
>1866: <<The pilgrim bands were at once decimated, and more than decimated.>>
>
>Reference is to cholera.
>
>----------
>
>http://books.google.com/books?id=0XkAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA592&dq=decimate+OR+decimates+OR+decimated+date:1660-1870&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3
>
>1867: <<... and when Pestilence followed close upon the heels of
>Famine, and more than decimated, or twice decimated, the miserable
>population; ....>>
>
>Reference is to potato famine.
>
>----------
>
>There are more.
>
>Here's a good one:
>
>http://books.google.com/books?id=1F6tl8hQ2q8C&pg=PA10&dq=%22one+in+ten%22+decimate+OR+decimates+OR+decimated+date:1660-1870&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0
>
>1866: <<In fact, during his occupation of Vera Cruz from 1858 to
>1860, he proved an epidemic many degrees more fatal to churches than
>the yellow fever, which decimates the population in the summer
>months. For the yellow fever merely takes off one in ten, whereas
>Juarez destroyed the nine and left the one.>>
>
>==========
>
>-- Doug Wilson
>
>
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