Wikipedia:Decimation

The term "decimated" is a horrifying one, and evidently is sufficiently horrifying to satisfy many otherwise well-informed writers, so WP desperately needs to deprecate, and otherwise counter, its vague use: --JerzyA (talk) 07:43, 7 September 2019 (UTC)
 * 1) Sense 1 ought rightly to reflect the usage of the ancient Romans: a disgraced unit (perhaps units of various nominal strengths were eligible) and every tenth soldier executed. vVrey clear.
 * 2) Sense 2 should presumably be stated along the lines of "Man, we might as well have been decimated by our commander, bcz about a tenth of us bit the big Mortus.
 * 3) My candidate for Sense 3 (Your league-age may vary) is "Holy Tartarus, did one in ten of us survive?
 * 4) Perhaps Sense 4 is the height of imprecision: "Does the number even matter? We're gonna be lucky if we can organize a retreat to any degree."