centesimation

English

Etymology

From the Latin centēsimātiō, from centēsimō, from centēsimus (“hundredth”); compare quintation, septimation, decimation, vicesimation, and tricesimation.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sĕn'tēsĭmāʹshən, IPA^(key): /ˌsɛntiːsɪˈmeɪʃən/

Noun

centesimation (countable and uncountable, plural centesimations)

1. (military history, 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.

   • 1660, Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, or the Rule of Conscience in All Her General Measures; […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] James Flesher, for Richard Royston […], →OCLC:
     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.

Coordinate terms

• Template:decimation equivalents

Related terms

• centesimate

Translations

execution of every hundredth man

• Welsh: canfediant m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}