duodecimate

Noun

duodecimate (plural not attested)

1. (no plural, rare) Synonym of duodecimvirate: a group of twelve.
   • We affirm, that to all eternity the apostles are to be twelve, among all the redeemed, a conspicuous, glorious, unassociated duodecimate.1851, Matthew LaRue Perrine Thompson, The Church, Its Ministry and Worship, page 95
   • There was there impanelled to serve as jurors [a] duodecimate of “impartial and unwitting persons”.1924, The Pharmaceutical Era, LIX, page 565

   Synonyms:

   duodecimvirate

Verb

UK/ˌdjuːəʊˈdɛsɪmeɪt/

duodecimate (past participle duodecimated)

1. (rare, attested in the past participle only) To kill one twelfth of a group of people, especially by lot.
   • 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.1868, Sydney Punch, VIII, page 93
   • The barbarians were duodecimated — i.e., one out of every twelve was beheaded.1974, Jean d’Ormesson, The Glory of the Empire, page 298
2. (rare, attested in the past participle only) To divide into twelfths; to divide duodecimally.
   • He has duodecimated his difficulties by choosing twelve boy “heroes.”1899, Current Literature, XXV, page 116
   • Already [Sir James Frazer] has epitomized, and so to speak, duodecimated, the Golden Bough, while Lady Frazer has culled a florilegium from his works.1928, Sir John Collings Squire, Rolfe Arnold Scott-James, The London Mercury, XVIII, page 446