Sense file
How the sense moved
The archive follows the dated record first, then reads the social or rhetorical pressure that hardened, softened, narrowed, or reversed the word.
Older meaning
Punish by killing one in ten.
Modern meaning
Destroy a large part of something.
Research lens
A practical archive case for distinguishing etymological history from current usage policing.
Meaning trail
Root
remove a tenth
The ratio was built into the word.
Older sense
one-in-ten punishment
A brutal but specific Roman discipline term.
Now
devastate badly
Precision gave way to intensity.