Decimated is from Latin decimātiō, where a large group of your army would be split into groups of 10, each group would draw straws, and the shortest straw would

Decimated is from Latin decimātiō, where a large group of your army would be split into groups of 10, each group would draw straws, and the shortest straw would be stoned to death by the other 9. A completely brutal form of military punishment for capital offenses such as cowardice. It is not really adequately captured by reducing it to "kill one in every 10". Wikipedia says it may be ahistorical though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(punishment) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(punishment) It also notes "In modern English, the word is used most commonly not to mean a destruction of a tenth but rather annihilation."