decimate

Etymology

First recorded c. 1600,^[1] or in 1591 according to Wiktionary,^[2] in the sense “to select by lot and put to death every tenth man”.^[1] It is borrowed from Latin decimātus, past participle of Latin decimāre (“to punish every tenth man chosen by lot; to tithe”),^[3][2] from Latin decimus (“tenth”), from Latin decem (“ten”),^[4][3] from Proto-Indo-European *dekm̥ (“ten”).^[4][1]

The Romans sometimes inflicted this punishment on mutinous armies and rebellious cities.^[1] The looser sense “destroy a large number of” has been in use since the 1660s.^[1]

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. [1] [2] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. [1] [2] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. [1] [2] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin