Comments on: Should “Decimate” be Annihilated?

By: NeilT

NeilT — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:42:22 +0000

Certainly the Roman use is very clear and specific. But what it appears most people have missed, is that there is a modern need for a word to signify ‘reduced TO (about) a tenth’. In the absence of anything like ‘novimate’, ‘decimate’ has had to do.

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:45:26 +0000

By the way your computer even messed up mine…look it should read “its staff” and “others’correct spelling” cheers

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:42:32 +0000

Hi..an American group making comment on the “abuse of the Queen’s English”…well, there’s a chuckle but where else better to do it than in the place where English has been most abused…America…

How do they know what’s correct?…I suppose buying an ‘older’ dictionary not printed in the USA but in a place where language has some holding of the roots of words might help; but then can they recognise the correct spellings?
When you work it out take it to Microsoft would you?….maybe it s staff could learn how to spell before correcting other’s correct spelling.

Cheers

By: 2012 and Global Warming... - Page 2 - Darkforum.com - Dark Stories, Dark Art, Poetry, Photography, Debates and Discussions

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:19:45 +0000

[...] University Press. I will agree there is still confusion over the word, but my idea withstands. Should “Decimate” be Annihilated? : OUPblog http://www.worldwidewords.org/backissues/wbi080112.txt If you think a forum is going downhill, [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:11:46 +0000

I’m usually very accepting of the ways that language grows and changes, but this one always annoys me. The prefix “deci” is right there for all to see. We might as well change the definition of the word “quartered” to mean 1/2th.

By: David Craig

David Craig — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:42:15 +0000

“Egregious” is a term of approval, “nice” means “ignorant,” and “silly” means “blessed.”

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:39:31 +0000

How about “unique” in usages that don’t limit to one?

By: Martyn Cornell

Martyn Cornell — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:45:23 +0000

I love the expression “skunked term”, supplies a great image – purists holding their noses as someone else misuses “fulsome” to mean “effusive”

By: James Crippen

James Crippen — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:28:23 +0000

The use of “exponential” to mean any great number is actually more of a sign of innumeracy than it is of vocabulary misuse. People who work in mathematically oriented fields, e.g. scientists and engineers, do not tend to misuse “exponential”. But people who are largely innumerate – those who never studied mathematics further than basic algebra – do tend to misuse it because they aren’t as sensitive to its mathematical meaning.

On the other hand, “decimate” has no technical application outside of discussing the Roman habit. So for that term it’s not a matter of innumeracy, it’s just that people have learned the newer, generalized meaning before they ever learned the classical meaning.

On the gripping hand, even highly numerate people intentionally or semi-intentionally misuse terminology like “exponential”, but they’re largely aware of the hyperbole. Indeed, I had a conversation with a physicist not too long ago where he complained about the “exponential growth of idiocy” among college students. He knew perfectly well that it’s probably more like a linear growth pattern.

By: Paula Mathieson

Paula Mathieson — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:43:50 +0000

Is “exponential” another equivocal term similar to “decimate”, i.e. also related to numbers and hyperbole?