Posted on 11/16/2019 6:32:42 AM PST by Moonman62
It's totally fine to use 'decimate' as a synonym for 'devastate'. This is why.
The issue that many people have with the decline and fall of the word decimate is that is once upon a time it had a very singular meaning, a meaning that is in danger of being lost forever to the vandals and barbarian hordes who are manhandling the English language through using this word to mean to destroy a large number of. The specific complaint is that decimate had the specific meaning, in ancient Rome, of killing one of every ten soldiers, as a form of military punishment. There are, it must be said, some problems with the argument that this is the only correct meaning today.
The first problem is that even if decimate did refer to the practice of killing one of every ten soldiers in Roman times, it did so in the service of Latin, not English. We have many words in English that are descended from Latin but which have changed their meaning in their travels. We no longer think of sinister as meaning on the left side, even though that was one of the words meanings when it existed in Latin.
Another problem with insisting that decimate should have but a single meaning is that very few words in English retain but a single meaning. An enormous percentage of the items in our vocabulary are capable of semantic multitasking. When a person uses a tricky word such as when, a, person, use, tricky, or word, all of which have multiple meanings, we use context to understand the speakers intent.
(Excerpt) Read more at merriam-webster.com ...
I say we keep it and adapt it to more modern usage.
Some words SHOULD retain their original meaning. Words like “democracy” and “republic” for instance. Most people don’t know that a republic is a specific form of government but the word has been usurped and bastardized by Communists such as in The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and The People’s Republic of China and California Republic.
And we should all pause for a moment to morn the passing of the use of the possessive case as the object of a gerund. ..... My having said that, now back to using adjectives as adverbs.
Forget words like “decimate”. I know some people who have trouble with words like “is”.
I am also annoyed when I hear “apocalypse” used to describe a calamity or disaster when the word actually means a disclosure.
I want a thread on the proper uses of an apostrophe.
Disirregardless...
I decimate my enemy by decapitating 1/10 of his body. Any questions?
You mean like "gay"?
Good one.
Words change and expand their meaning by metaphor. To use "decimate" to describe a mass annihilation is perfectly acceptable, and has been for decades.
I think "decimate" sounds like it should mean mass annihilation.
Another word which has been misused so often that it is now more common tha the correct way and so is probably OK.
That word is forte’. If used as a musical description, it is pronounced for-tay. If used as your strong point it is pronounced fort.
If you pronounce it fort now, people will correct you.
This might be a good candidate for Jeff Foxworthy’s “Redneck Dictionary”: “Decimate the third time Bubba’s been arrested for drunk driving.”
I always prefer to obliterate anyway.
“To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.”
We no longer think of sinister as meaning on the left side,
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This explains the true nature of leftist Democrats.
Could be that nine of ten freepers find your posts dull, predictable and peevish.
“I was decimated when I heard that Epstein did not kill himself.”
;)
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