Handsome Fit Lad Beheaded And Quartered

I like the way they've planted his head - did they hope it would put down roots and grow?
 
He appears to have been a fine specimen of manhood, and he was more than quartered. What is the term for being cut into ten pieces (plus a head)?
 
He appears to have been a fine specimen of manhood, and he was more than quartered. What is the term for being cut into ten pieces (plus a head)?

Decimated :)
 
Actually I'm repurposing the word. in fact the original literal meaning was the Roman punishment for a legion that surrendered or showed cowardice - one solder in ten, chosen by lot, was executed 'pour encourager les autres' (to mix 18th centuy French with Latin practice).
 
You have explained one mystery, but created another. "Encourager" seems pretty obvious, but what does "pour...les autres" mean? I saw somewhere that French is the language of the future, not, as I would have thought, Spanish. The whole world will be speaking like deaddirty soon (so they say).
 
You have explained one mystery, but created another. "Encourager" seems pretty obvious, but what does "pour...les autres" mean? I saw somewhere that French is the language of the future, not, as I would have thought, Spanish. The whole world will be speaking like deaddirty soon (so they say).

I'll drink to that!
"To encourage the others" - Voltaire's satirical comment on the execution of Admiral Byng in 1757 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng

We are nothing if not well-cultured here :gentleman:
 
OMG, deaddirty...that is it, of course!

Alex my friend, I owe you an apology. For that is not it - if it was, he would still have 90% of himself.
I was wrong - he was not decimated, he was of course decimalised -and that is far far worse!
 
No, no, no...I still think you are correct. If quartered means in four pieces, then decimated would be the perfect term for a body in ten pieces. If anyone says differently, we will bifurcate or triangulate him.
 
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