[Grovenet] Was it Devastated or merely Decimated?

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

I use the references my editors use, such as the Merriam-Webster or the
American Heritage Dictionary or which defines decimate both ways, as I
noted. 

For example M-W says:

1 : to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
2 : to exact a tax of 10 percent from <poor as a decimated Cavalier -- John
Dryden>
3 a : to reduce drastically especially in number <cholera decimated the
population> b : to cause great destruction or harm to <firebombs decimated
the city> <an industry decimated by recession>

The OED does show the change in usage, defining decimate as  "1 kill or
destroy a large proportion of. 2 drastically reduce the strength of"

My point is that the meaning is being changed by common usage from "to
reduce by 1/10th" to "destroy". My example is what was well understood only
a few years ago, but which is now becoming the less common usage. Your
comments and my short-form OED seem to support that change. With the OED
taking the conservative "middle ground" of current usage, as is usual. I
haven't had an editor who used and OED one in many years. The OED seems to
be the choice of academicians and not the ordinary working folk <G>. 

"weigh in": to balance in the mind in order to make a choice. 

Ron D'Eau Claire    





-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Meredith Bliss
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 8:36 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Was it Devastated or merely Decimated?


I beg to differ, Ron, as usual. Most sources do indeed reference the Roman 
army as the source of the meaning, "to reduce by one tenth," but the normal 
extension of that usage in modern times has been to refer to a more general 
drastic reduction in numbers, usually of people. I doubt the monetary usage 
to which you refer is very common ;-) Nor is the strict interpretation to 
which you cling. I really do need to get a copy of the OED ...

On the other hand, "devastate" is normally used to refer to non-numeric 
effects, i.e., you can decimate a group by killing many of its members, or 
you can devastate them by destroying their possessions ....

And speaking of usage ... "weigh in on" ... really?

On Friday 26 January 2007 15:47, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
> 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.
>
>
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-- 
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Just happy to be here, but speaking 
only for myself!
Meredith Bliss --- www.rdrop.com/~mbliss
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