decimate

• vt.10人のうち1人を取る、10分の1を取る；大量に殺す

decim-、10分の1から。もともとは軍事用語で、反乱を起こした都市や軍隊があると、総数の10分の1の割合でまとめて殺す。中国語の「连坐」に似ている。

decimate

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.

1. Silber says the tax rollback would decimate basic services for the needy.

シルバ氏は、税収の落ち込みは貧困人口に提供する基本的なサービスを大幅に減らす可能性があると述べた。

2.The pollation could decimate the river 's thriving population of kingfishers.

汚染により、川辺で大量に繁殖したカワセミが大量に死亡する可能性がある。

3.The pollation could decimate the river 's thriving population of kingfishers.

汚染により、川辺で大量に繁殖したカワセミが大量に死亡する可能性がある。

4.Many adversities decimate the fluke numbers.

多くの不利な要素が吸虫数を10分の1に減らすことができる。

5.Her range of weaponry could easily decimate any convoy she encountered.

彼女の強力な武器装備は、彼女と遭遇した護衛艦隊を簡単に灰にすることができる。