septimation
Oct. 19th, 2011 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordseptimation (sep-ti-MAH-shuhn) - n., the loss, seizure, destruction, or killing of one seventh (of something or of a group).
Coined on the pattern of decimation from Latin septimus, seventh. Note that decimate originally meant to kill or destroy one tenth, and this was meant literally -- it was a extreme form of punishment in the Roman army, for when a unit REALLY messed up -- but in English it has taken on a different, worse sense.
---L.
Coined on the pattern of decimation from Latin septimus, seventh. Note that decimate originally meant to kill or destroy one tenth, and this was meant literally -- it was a extreme form of punishment in the Roman army, for when a unit REALLY messed up -- but in English it has taken on a different, worse sense.
---L.
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Date: 2011-10-19 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-20 02:15 am (UTC)---L.