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 (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, Irving Kristol, editors, 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

• (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

• Welsh: canfediant m