I have almost given up on decimate, but some misuses, such as "The fire decimated the house," do make me wince.
I'll nurse you back to health. I'll wear the nurse outfit!
"BuffyBot" ,'Dirty Girls'
Natter 69: Practically names itself.
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Ginger - Feb 10, 2012 4:02:01 pm PST #21379 of 30001
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
Consuela - Feb 10, 2012 4:03:59 pm PST #21380 of 30001
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
I refuse to give up on "decimate"--it means "destroys 1/10th of", damn it.
JZ, if you're around, I'm reading the comments on yesterday's NCR editorial on the contraception issue. Yay for sensible Catholics, boo for the stupid NCR editors. I was really surprised they went that way.
§ ita § - Feb 10, 2012 4:05:02 pm PST #21381 of 30001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Decimated totally gets me going. Mostly because a) it's right there in the word and b) now I'm short a word. I want a word.
leggings should be worn with flats!
This is news to me. When did that get decided?
msbelle - Feb 10, 2012 4:07:16 pm PST #21382 of 30001
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb
decimate is like anniversary.
bon bon - Feb 10, 2012 4:08:52 pm PST #21383 of 30001
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.
I don't use decimate because devastate is always better and of course, it marks me as foolish not to know the historical meaning. But that also means decimate has pretty much been removed from the language. It's too specific and too obscure. Now I'm short a word.
sarameg - Feb 10, 2012 4:09:16 pm PST #21384 of 30001
A little part of me dies whenever I hear NPR use 'decimate' incorrectly.
Sore tonight.
I've got so much travel to schedule, it is insane. It's not that I don't like travel. It's that I don't like the anticipation of the disruption to my routine. And really, flying 8+ hours for one day for a wedding just makes my head hurt.
Sophia Brooks - Feb 10, 2012 4:09:47 pm PST #21385 of 30001
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
I don't get how you would use the word decimate as "kills 1/10th of"-- I can't think of any way that that would be measurable. Unless you were in an army, counted off by 10s and then killed.
Dana - Feb 10, 2012 4:13:20 pm PST #21386 of 30001
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Unless you were in an army, counted off by 10s and then killed.
Which is pretty much the origin of the word, except I think it was the population, yeah? Conquering Romans were not nice people.
Matt the Bruins fan - Feb 10, 2012 4:13:25 pm PST #21387 of 30001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
It originates with the Roman practice of punishing a unit by dividing it into groups of 10 and executing one person from each.
NoiseDesign - Feb 10, 2012 4:14:47 pm PST #21388 of 30001
Our wings are not tired
Really? We should be using it in the sense of the Roman practice? By the time the bubonic plague hit Europe it was being used in the sense of "destroy a large portion of the population."