英検1級！語源がこわい decimate の意味と使い方

スペンサー: Can I Come in? Please.
(入ってもいい？お願い。)
[ 薬の袋を出して] That's all of them. I don't need them anymore.
(これで全部よ。もう要らない。)
ハンナ: Are you sure?
(ほんと？)
スペンサー: Yeah. Look, I know that my credibility with you guys kind of got decimated today, but Ezra is "A". I'm sure of it.
(ええ。このことで私の信用がガタ落ちしただろうけど、エズラが "A" なのは確かよ。)
エミリー: Maybe you are. But we're not.
(私たちには確信が持てない。)
スペンサー: I know that. And all I'm asking is for the chance to prove it to you.
(だよね。だから証明するチャンスがほしい。)

そういって、手帳を取り出しました。スペンサーはなぜエズラを "A" だと思ったのでしょうか。続きは Hulu で！

プリティ・リトル・ライアーズ

その他のドラマや映画ではこう使われている！

ブラインドスポットタトゥーの女 (Blindspot)

Season 4 Episode 19

They'll have the power to decimate any country they want.

Season 3 Episode 5

Guy used sarin gas on his own people. Decimated a village for good measure.

私はラブ・リーガル (Drop Dead Diva)

Season 2 Episode 10

Without the plant, our tax base will be decimated, and we won't be able
to pay city workers.

Season 6 Episode 7

The breakwater needs to be rebuilt. You know that will decimate the kelp beds.

おわりに

"decimate" は「大きな打撃を与える」という意味です。この言葉、語源がちょっとこわいです。古代ローマで、暴動や反乱を起こしたりした軍の兵士を、10 人に 1 人の割合で選んで殺してしまうことで、残った人たちを軍に従わせるということをしていたそうです。たしかに大きな衝撃です。。。そう言われてみると、decimal や decade と同じで 10 を表す dec が入っていますね。

The connection between decimate and the number ten harks back to a brutal practice of the army of ancient Rome. A unit that was guilty of a severe crime (such as mutiny) was punished by selecting and executing one-tenth of its soldiers, thereby scaring the remaining nine-tenths into obedience. The word comes from Latin decem, meaning "ten." Decimate strayed from its "tenth" meaning and nowadays refers to the act of destroying or hurting something in great numbers.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decimate

c. 1600, "to select by lot and put to death every tenth man," from Latin decimatus, past participle of decimare "the removal or destruction of one-tenth," from decem "ten" (from PIE root *dekm- "ten").

The killing of one in ten, chosen by lots, from a rebellious city or a mutinous army was a punishment sometimes used by the Romans. The word has been used (loosely and unetymologically, to the irritation of pedants) since 1660s for "destroy a large but indefinite number of." Related: Decimated; decimating.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/decimate