Citations:vicesimation


 * 1834, Samuel Hibbert, John Palmer, William Robert Whatton, and J. Greswell, History of the Foundations in Manchester of Chirst’s College, Chetham’s Hospital, and the Free Grammar School (London: William Pickering; Manchester: Thomas Agnew and Joseph Zanetti), volume 2, “Illustrations of Chapter XXV”, page 124
 * The common prisoners were about three hundred and seventy, who 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 (A.C. McClurg & Co.), page 273
 * If either a much smaller or a much larger proportion than one in ten is lost, we must change the numerator of our fraction. But what is one to do in such a case? 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 fifteen, quindecimation, if one in twenty, vicesimation.
 * 1961, Victor M Yeates, Winged Victory (Jonathan Cape), page 99
 * Smith smiled it all off. ‘This seems to be a wonderful squadron. Fancy getting twenty Huns in one day! And for only one casualty. I didn’t know such things were possible.’ ‘Nor did anyone else,’ said Tom, ‘but you never know what you can do till you try. And don’t be so pleased about the one casualty. If you work out what one casualty a day mounts up to, you will notice that we shall all be casualties within a month. It’s daily vigesimation.’
 * 1964, Kenneth Burke [aut.] and Stanley Edgar Hyman [ed.], Perspectives by Incongruity (Indiana University Press), volume 2, page 58
 * the practice, among conquering tyrants, of putting to death every twentieth man. Am I the victim of my attitudes, or a victim of vigesimation?
 * 1995, David Grambs, Just Ask Mr. Wordwizard: “Sentences Repaired, Words Offered, Ignorance Thwarted” (Laurel; ISBN 0440217199, 9780440217190), page 123
 * To decimate, originally, was a military punishment, determined by lot, whereby every tenth man was executed. A little luckier for the troops was vigesimation: every twentieth man was killed.