http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/09/does-decimate-mean-destroy-one-tenth/ http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/09/does-decimate-mea... Decimate may h

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/09/does-decimate-mean-destroy-one-tenth/ http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/09/does-decimate-mea... Decimate may have had an archaic definition like that (even then, the jury's still out), but the modern definition of "destruction of a substantial portion of" has been well accepted even in academia. Unless we want to start using words only in their original, millenia-old definitions can we drop this thing every time someone uses decimation in the "wrong" way?