! DECIMATE

[mik3cap]

Okay people. Please help me with this one. Even PBS's NOVA is wrong on it, and it's worrying me.

Decimate == REDUCE by ONE TENTH. To decimate something is to destroy ten percent of it.

People CONSTANTLY misuse this word. They should be using the word "devastate" instead.

DEVASTATE, not decimate.

You may now return to your previously scheduled program.

Comments

[bronzite.livejournal.com]

Used to. Still does. Also has another meaning to mean "significantly reduce." Merriam-Webster agrees.

English may be a technical language, but its still a language in motion, and meanings migrate over time.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sorry, but, if that's true, it's because people are getting stupider and M-W is slacking. Deci- still means "one tenth". I'd rather people bother to learn to use prefixes, especially ones used in scientific systems, than make up their own shit because they're too stupid to use words properly or know how the SI works.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

There's no excuse for saying "The Spanish Inquisition decimated the Mayan culture by burning all their works". "Significantly reduce" is not the same as "totally destroy". This is all just intellectual slippage and it's pissing me off.