! 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

[gower.livejournal.com]

>Inexactness of language is inexactness of thought.

After some amount of years after a word changes you have to give up on that, though, like "nice" no longer meaning "fastidious" or "buxom" no longer meaning "obedient."

"I want you kids to be nice and buxom!"

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

What are the roots of nice and buxom? Do those pieces get used differently and specifically in different words, like deci- does, or was it just sloppiness?