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The original meaning for the term decimate is to kill one man out of every ten.
This comes from ancient Roman times when mutinous squads were decimated. I.e. 1/10 of their soldiers were killed. The method in those times was to get the remaining 9 soldiers of every 10 to kill the chosen soldier.
Nowadays however, the meaning for decimate has changed to mean the destruction of the larger part of a group.
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What is ten centimeters?
a decimate
What is the antonym of decimate?
There is no single word which is the antonym of decimate. To decimate is to reduce by one tenth, or 10% If a Roman Emperor ordered a legion decimated, say, for losing a battle, then a legion of 300 men would have 30 men executed. Similarly, 1000 men would lose 100, and so on. The antonym of decimate would be the phrase; 'to increase by one tenth'
What was the original meaning of ground zero?
The center of a nuclear explosion.
Where did the word integer come from?
It comes from the Latin words 'in' = negative, and 'tangere' = to touch. The original meaning was 'untouched' which came to mean whole, entire.
What was the fraction of men executed to decimate the male population in early rome?
The word decimated held different meaning that that which is used today. 'Deci' means 'tenth', so, initially (as in Roman times) when a Legion was Decimated, one man in ten was executed. Today it can not only mean to "kill" but destroy, or harm, or reduce by any means. Additionally, it is commonly used today to mean much more than "one in ten," it can equally mean to reduce to a tenth of its former size.
