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What's the battle? I'm seeing two definitions: 1. Kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage of. 2. Drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (som
by recursive 14y ago
What's the battle? I'm seeing two definitions:
1. Kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage of.
2. Drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something): "plant viruses that can decimate yields".
- monochromatic 14y agoThe battle is that usage 2 is relatively young (being only a few hundred years old), and some people object to it. Lots of words change meanings, and hundreds of years is usually enough time for a new meaning to become totally unobjectionable. But I think the main issue here is that the word so clearly derives from the Latin for "ten" that it just sticks out like a sore thumb.
- tedunangst 14y agoEnglish is not Latin. Please, just accept this. The Spanish word diezmar, shockingly enough, also means to destroy (or cut by a tenth), even though it looks like it's got a ten in there, too.
- monochromatic 14y agoAnd I bet that word sounds odd to some native Spanish speakers, and they object to it on etymological grounds. Just like decimate.
- riffraff 14y agothe italian word "decimare" also means both
- latinohere 14y agoI'm a 35 year old latin and I have never, ever heard anybody use that word, not on TV, not on books, not on nothing. I had to look it up too see if it was real. Is a weird word, please don't use. Diesmo, on the other hand is quite common and I guess you can say that diesmar is the act of giving the tenth of your profits to the church. Still, diezmar is a dead word. Instead we use decimo for tenth and decimar for destroy.
- tedunangst 14y agoCool, though I wonder what the origin of decimar is. :)
- dbaupp 14y agoAs others have pointed out, the "battle" is actually against both usage 1 and 2: the original meaning[1] is to kill only 10% of a legion (etc) as punishment for some misdeed. It's the large reduction implied in current usage of decimate that gets pedants all riled up. [1]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/decimate#Etymology https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/decimate#Etymology
- monochromatic 14y agoOops, I misread the comment I was replying to.
- jacoblyles 14y agoHe's referring to the Roman martial practice of decimation, which I believe is source of the word. (As a Roman history lover, it is a word that bothers me as well)