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 word’s 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 speaker’s intent.
(Excerpt) Read more at merriam-webster.com ...
Case in point- the “F” word. It has a bunch of different meanings.
One of the things I realized later is if one sticks to strict, exactly-literal definition of the word it would essentially have to die out due to lack of usage.
...
Very true. Nobody would use “decimate” anymore.
Not one in ten people use decimate properly.
You decimate our language.
Improper use of language literally makes my head explode.
If a library looses 1/10 of its books has it been Dewey Decimated?
I will use “decimate” for two reasons: it’s correct to do so, and it irritates the Grammar Nazi’s in a big way, even though I agree that “devastate” is a better choice.
Irregardless...
If the plural of louse is lice and the plural of mouse is mice then the plural of house must be hice.
I’m not exactly devastated.
That is so gauche...
Units that lose 10% strength quickly in combat typically drop substantially in effectiveness. So, its a reasonable parallel.
But we should.
Hhahahahaha
Devastate means reduce by a large amount in substance, such as substantial.
Decimate:
Winter will decimate the flowering plants due to frost killing off their numbers.
Devastate:
An earthquake will devastate a town in destructive substance.
Even the Romans did not decimate by 10%. It could have been 8% or 13%, so the true error here is by Merriam Webster with their false assumption. You come here to Free Republic to get the real story.
Clearly, I meant loose as in to let go of, not as in misplace.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I don’t want to be a looser, that would be a stretch...
"Debt" used to denote a financial obligation. It has been extended to include any obligation, not just those financial.
"Insane" has a very specific legal meaning. Yet it is commonly used to refer to liberals of all stripes.
Words change and expand their meaning by metaphor. To use "decimate" to describe a mass annihilation is perfectly acceptable, and has been for decades.
Pedants unite! But good article. Thank you for posting.
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