decimate

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• Received-Pronunciation: /ˈdɛsɪmeɪt/
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• Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• US: /ˈdɛsəmeɪt/
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• CMU ARPABET: D EH1 S AH0 M EY2 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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The verb is first attested in 1591, the noun in 1641; borrowed from Latin decimātus, perfect passive participle of decimō (“to kill one tenth; to tithe”) (see, from -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix)), from decimus (“tenth”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). As a noun, via Latin decimatus (“tithing area; tithing rights”).

39 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Catalan: delmar — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Chinese Mandarin: 十一抽杀 — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Dutch: decimeren — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Esperanto: dekumi — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Finnish: desimoida — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• French: décimer — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• German: dezimieren — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Greek: αποδεκατίζω (apodekatízo) — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Hungarian: megtizedel — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Italian: decimare — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Macedonian: десеткува (desetkuva) — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Middle English: tithen — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Portuguese: dizimar — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Serbo-Croatian: десетковати (desetkovati) — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Swedish: decimera — Roman history: to kill one out of ten men
• Catalan: delmar — to reduce by one-tenth
• Dutch: decimeren — to reduce to one-tenth
• Hungarian: megtizedel — to reduce to one-tenth
• Spanish: diezmar — to reduce to one-tenth
• Swedish: decimera — to reduce to one-tenth
• Catalan: delmar — to severely reduce
• Dutch: decimeren — to severely reduce
• Finnish: hävittää — to severely reduce
• Finnish: lähes tuhota — to severely reduce
• Hungarian: megtizedel — to severely reduce
• Māori: whakawhiri — to severely reduce
• Portuguese: dizimar — to severely reduce
• Russian: истребля́ть (istrebljátʹ) — to severely reduce
• Russian: опустошать (opustošatʹ) — to severely reduce
• Spanish: diezmar — to severely reduce
• Swedish: decimera — to severely reduce
• Turkish: kırmak — to severely reduce
• Turkish: biçmek — to severely reduce
• Turkish: azaltmak — to severely reduce
• Ottoman Turkish: قیرمق (kırmak) — to severely reduce
• German: verheeren — to devastate: to reduce or destroy significantly but not completely
• German: übel zurichten — to devastate: to reduce or destroy significantly but not completely
• German: zugrunde richten — to devastate: to reduce or destroy significantly but not completely
• Finnish: alentaa resoluutiota — computer graphics: to replace with lower resolution