[Grovenet] Was it Devastated or merely Decimated?

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Okay, ladies and gents, here's one we can weigh in on without getting too
"hot under the collar" (I hope). 

I'm a writer. I mess with words every day. So the deliberate misuse of words
is, to me, like the avid bicycler who gets cut off by a careless automobile
driver. It's unnerving and irritating. 

I'm hearing "decimated" used more and more in a context that suggests the
writer meant something was "utterly destroyed". That is, it's used as a
synonym for "devastated". 

Of course, they do *not* mean anything like the same thing. "Decimate" means
to reduce by 1/10th!(1) 

If I 'decimate' a $10 bill, I have $9 left.

If I 'devastate' or 'destroy' a $10 bill, I don't have anything left.

However, the illiterati are so pervasive they seem to be changing the
meaning of decimate! Even some dictionaries now give both contradictory
meanings ("to reduce by 1/10" and "to destroy"). 

Okay, so what other abuses and misuses of words grate on you folks out
there? Got one? Sound off! We can agonize or argue about it without fear of
causing a national revolt or destroying the environment! (Well, maybe
putting a dent our linguistic environment, but the polluters have already
done that with their use of words like decimate).


Ron D'Eau Claire   
 

(1) The story goes that 'decimate' was invented in ancient Rome as a
disciplinary technique for soldiers. If a group failed to perform as
desired, one in ten would be chosen at random for punishment. That would be
"decimating" the troop. One legend says that in extreme cases the soldiers
would be lined up  at the edge of a cliff. The commander would walk along
the line counting, 1...2...3...4...5 and when he reached 10 that soldier was
pushed to his death. This went on for the total length of the troop standing
there. It made the punishment personal and obvious without too seriously
reducing the strength of the troop.