4 ms·
I'm sorry, I don't understand your comment. You might mean one of two things: 1. There could be some confusion as to what is left undestroyed by 10%. I intende
by troutwine 14y ago
I'm sorry, I don't understand your comment. You might mean one of two things:
1. There could be some confusion as to what is left undestroyed by 10%. I intended that figure to refer to the DPRK's tunnels, but especially the artillery capable tunnel mouths, not Seoul itself.
2. You may be employing a single definition of 'decimate', namely 'to take a tenth part of, tithe'. I doubt you mean the historical Roman practice of killing every tenth man, chosen by lot, of a legion. I kindly note that 'to destroy a large percentage of' is a a commonly accepted English usage of 'decimate'. It may be the most common usage, especially as knowledge of latin roots is not widespread.
- wildwood 14y agoThe second one is a pet peeve of mine. For anybody who's familiar with the traditional meaning, the newer meaning is actively confusing, since both mean destruction, but only differ by degree. Are there really not enough words for destroy/crush/obliterate/etc, that another one needs to be created?