centesimation
English
Etymology
From the Latin centēsimātiō, from centēsimō, from centēsimus (“hundredth”); compare quintation, septimation, decimation, vicesimation, and tricesimation.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sĕn'tēsĭmāʹshən, IPA(key): /ˌsɛntiːsɪˈmeɪʃən/
Noun
centesimation
- (military historical, rare) The selection by lot of every hundredth man (of an army or group of prisoners or mutineers) for execution.
- 1763, A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, second edition, page 522
- CENTESIMATION, a milder kind of military puniſhment, in caſes of deſertion, mutiny, and the like, when only every hundredth man is executed.
- 1822, Reginald Heber, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor XIII, page 413
- Sometimes the criminals were decimated by lot, as appears in Polybius, Tacitus, Plutarch, Appian, Dio, Julius Capitolinus, who also mentions a centesimation.
- 1897, The Columbian Cyclopedia VI, “centesimate”
- To inflict the punishment of centesimation.
- 1980, Stephen Spender and Irving Kristol [eds.], Encounter LIV, page 71
- Centesimation…carries only one-tenth the sensation value of “decimation”.
- 1992, Laurence Urdang, Three Toed Sloths and Seven League Boots, page 151
- Decimate, to select by lot and put to death every tenth man of (a captured army or body of prisoners or mutineers) […] Compare 1/100: centesimation.
- 1763, A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, second edition, page 522
Coordinate terms
- (proportionate reduction, by single aliquot part): quintation (1/5), septimation (1/7), decimation (1/10), vicesimation (1/20), tricesimation (1/30)
Related terms
- centesimate
Translations
execution of every hundredth man
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