[SamAdams76]

Actually the true meaning of the word decimate is the subject of spirited debate among many English teachers, as they lunch on sandwiches of roasted turkey breast and swiss cheese on rye bread (cut diagonally in triangular shape).

Many hold that decimate simply means to "greatly reduce" although some adhere to your belief that it means to reduce by 1/10th (i.e. from 100 to 90). However, there are others in the camp that says that decimate actually means not to reduce by a tenth but to reduce to a tenth. For example, from 100 to 10.

As long as the supply of turkey and cheese sandwiches at our nation's delicatessens hold out, the debate shall rage on and on, with no resolution.

[Graybeard58]

I also had a problem with the queen’s 60 year “jubilee”. Originally it meant 50 years. It has morphed into a party or celebration or whatever anybody wants it to mean.

My wife and I will soon celebrate our 46 year wedding anniversary jubilee.

[Graybeard58]

And a “deluge” without any water.

[PapaBear3625]

Actually the true meaning of the word decimate is the subject of spirited debate among many English teachers,

Regardless of the opinions of English teachers, the origin of the word came from the Romans, who practiced decimation as a punishment for cowardly Roman Army units:

A unit selected for punishment by decimation was divided into groups of ten; each group drew lots (Sortition), and the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed by his nine comrades