[nemosaltat]

> Removing 1/10

feels euphemistic for the original “colloquial” usage I have for it.

> 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." [0]

[0] https://www.etymonline.com/word/decimate

[peterashford]

Yup. What amuses me is that people think that decimate is to massively degrade something. I assume they're thinking "reduce to 1/10th" rather than "reduce to 9/10th". The effect is markedly different