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I always thought it meant to be reduced by a factor of ten, not by a tenth?
Happy to be corrected, mind, but that would at least be consistent with the typical usage to mean very heavy losses.
EDIT: Google indeed tells me I'm wrong...
andyfallsoff-
Actually, according to Wikipedia it seems we are both wrong?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army)#ProcedureI just went by the original anecdote and the latin meaning of deci-
In any case I guess all of this is less mystifying if you grew up with the metric system and frequently had to deal with decilitres etc.
starfish&coffee
Nah, I am with @clubman on the misuse of decimated.
It sounds bollox when someone uses it to express great losses –the bubonic plague decimated Europe– when you know it only signifies a ten percent reduction. (Albeit an originally rather grim form of reduction.)