! 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

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Agreed that Orwell is dry, but there is seriously deep thought and meaning in his work. His political acumen is unparalleled, he predicted sixty years worth of degeneration in political thought and governance (though it could be argued that his work may have been the model that people in power followed to bring us to this point).

1984 was actually just Orwell building fiction around an essay he wrote; it may be worthwhile to ignore the story and just read his essay:

http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit

He invented Newspeak as a way to illustrate his points in this essay.

[karmadrome.livejournal.com]

This is going to be one of those internecine struggles, isn't it?

[rovanda.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I'll take a look at it :)

[rovanda.livejournal.com]

Very interesting essay! His criticism of the way language is twisted to obscure meaning rather than communicate meaning reminds me of one of George Carlin's shows - where he talks about how a phrase with a very clear meaning, like "shell shock" gets twisted around into something dry and meaningless, like "post traumatic stress disorder."

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

I know if he were around today, he'd rip the shit out of FOX news...