*SET-U

CANONICAL LANGUAGE GRAPH

TRACE A WORD ↗
NODE / 0181attestedLatin

decimāre

take a tenth; select every tenth person, including for punishment

DATE
Latin antiquity
SENSE
take a tenth
FAMILY
Indo-European / Italic
CANONICAL KEY
node:9:decimare:attested:sense:take-a-tenth

Latin verb formed from the ordinal/tenth family.

01

ANCESTRAL EDGES

ROOT OF THIS ROOT

1
02

DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES

THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP

1
DESCENDANTborrowingestablished
Present-Day English · 1660–today · destroy or reduce

decimate

kill every tenth member historically; later destroy or reduce drastically

SOUND
English decimate is formed on the Latin past-participial stem decimāt-.
MEANING
The exact selection or taxation of a tenth broadens within English to drastic reduction or destruction.
CHRONOLOGY
First-known English use is reported in 1660; broader use follows within decades.
SCHOLAR
Merriam-Webster Editors
CONFIDENCE
established — The broader sense is established English usage, not an etymological error.
Decimate — Word HistorysupportsDid You Know; Word History

Records exact Roman/English tenth-member sense, first use, and early broadening.

ORIGINAL ↗
The Original Definition of DecimatesupportsRegarding the Incorrect Use of Decimate

Explains why the broader English sense is established rather than erroneous.

ORIGINAL ↗
OPEN CANONICAL EDGE 169 ↗
03

TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE

EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE

1

This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.

UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES
1
REVIEWED EDGES
1
DEEPEST PATH
1
MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
1
decimate1 connected node
HISTORICAL STEP 011 EDGE
STEP 01borrowingestablished
Latindecimāre→Present-Day English · 1660–todaydecimatekill every tenth member historically; later destroy or reduce drastically
SOUND
English decimate is formed on the Latin past-participial stem decimāt-.
MEANING
The exact selection or taxation of a tenth broadens within English to drastic reduction or destruction.
Merriam-Webster Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 169 ↗
Decimate — Word History · Did You Know; Word History ↗The Original Definition of Decimate · Regarding the Incorrect Use of Decimate ↗

“Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.

04

RECORDED EVIDENCE

ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE

0
NO RECORDED WITNESS ATTACHED.

The reviewed graph does not yet attach a source-reported or directly inspected witness to this canonical form.

05

EDITORIAL REUSE

WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE

1
02decimatedecimāre · established