duodecimate

Translingual

Etymology

From Latin duodecimatus.

Adjective

duodecimate

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   • 1966, Kenneth Frederick Gordon Hosking, Godfrey John Shrimpton, editors, Present Views of Some Aspects of the Geology of Cornwall and Devon (in English), page 69:

     At Penfoot (SX 302833) the upper horizons have yielded…the trilobites Cyrtosymbole (Macrobole) drewerensis and C. (Macrobole) duodecimate.

English

Etymology 1

From Latin duodecimatus, from duodecim (“twelve”) + -ātus (“-ate”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: dyo͞o'ōdĕʹsĭmət, IPA^(key): /ˌdjuːəʊˈdɛsɪmət/

Noun

duodecimate (plural not attested)

1. (rare) Synonym of duodecimvirate: a group of twelve.
   • 1851, Matthew LaRue Perrine Thompson, The Church, Its Ministry and Worship, page 95:

     We affirm, that to all eternity the apostles are to be twelve, among all the redeemed, a conspicuous, glorious, unassociated duodecimate.

   • 1924, The Pharmaceutical Era, LIX, page 565:

     There was there impanelled to serve as jurors [a] duodecimate of “impartial and unwitting persons”.

Etymology 2

Either from the Latin duodecimō (“I take one twelfth”) or an alteration of the Latin duodecimus (“twelfth”) by analogy with decimate.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: dyo͞o'ōdĕʹsĭmāt, IPA^(key): /ˌdjuːəʊˈdɛsɪmeɪt/

Verb

duodecimate (past participle duodecimated)

1. (rare, attested in the past participle only) To kill one twelfth of a group of people, especially by lot.
   • 1868, Sydney Punch, VIII, page 93:

     The French squadron…opened fire at a distance far beyond the range of our rifles, and the carnage in our ranks was fearful. We were being gradually duodecimated.

   • 1974, Jean d’Ormesson, The Glory of the Empire, page 298:

     The barbarians were duodecimated — i.e., one out of every twelve was beheaded.

   • 2009, Tom McMorrow, Having Fun With Words of Wit and Wisdom, page 75:

     If they had duodecimated a legion…rather than…decimate them…, two [fewer] guys per unit would have had to be killed.

2. (rare, attested in the past participle only) To divide into twelfths; to divide duodecimally.
   • 1899, Current Literature, XXV, page 116:

     He has duodecimated his difficulties by choosing twelve boy “heroes.”

   • 1928, Sir John Collings Squire, Rolfe Arnold Scott-James, The London Mercury, XVIII, page 446:

     Already [Sir James Frazer] has epitomized, and so to speak, duodecimated, the Golden Bough, while Lady Frazer has culled a florilegium from his works.

Coordinate terms

• (reduce proportionately, by single aliquot part): tertiate (⅓), quintate (⅕), sextate (⅙), septimate (⅐), decimate (⅒), centesimate (¹⁄₁₀₀)