It means to remove one-tenth. From the same root word as decimal.
It was a Roman Legion punishment in which (in the most florid tellings) the soldiers of a legion being punished for clearances would draw lots and every tenth soldier was put to death by the other nine.
Now days it often means to devastate in one of those cases where a word means its near opposite.
Prepare for the liberal media (but I repeat myself) to run this tweet with stories of how he misused the word “decimated”.
It means to remove one-tenth. From the same root word as decimal.
It was a Roman Legion punishment in which (in the most florid tellings) the soldiers of a legion being punished for clearances would draw lots and every tenth soldier was put to death by the other nine.
Now days it often means to devastate in one of those cases where a word means its near opposite.