vicesimation

English[edit]

Probably formed by the suffixation of the Latin vīcēsimus (“twentieth”) with the English -ation on the pattern of decimation, but compare the Latin vīcēsimātiō (“a killing of every twentieth man”); the spelling vigesimation is an alteration of vicesimation under the influence of vigesimal.

(UK) enPR: vī'sēsĭmāʹshən, vĭ'sĭsĭmāʹshən, IPA^(key): /ˌvaɪsiːsɪˈmeɪʃən/, /ˌvɪsɪsɪˈmeɪʃən/

vicesimation (countable and uncountable, plural vicesimations)

(rare) The destruction of one-twentieth of something; especially, the killing or putting to death of every twentieth person, especially by lot.
- 1834, Samuel Hibbert et al., History of the Foundations in Manchester of Chirst’s College, Chetham’s Hospital, and the Free Grammar School, volume 2, page 124:
  The common prisoners…were ordered to cast lots for every twentieth man to be tried, as a sort of vicesimation.
- 1901, Joseph Fitzgerald, Word and Phrase: True and False Use in English, page 273:
  We must change the numerator of our fraction.…If one must have the precise fractional term in “ation,” and the loss is one in five, let him coin the word quintation…if one in twenty, vicesimation.

(proportionate reduction, by single aliquot part): quintation (1/5), septimation (1/7), decimation (1/10), tricesimation (1/30), centesimation (1/100)

destruction of one-twentieth; killing of every twentieth