To 'decimate' something means to wipe out, by some means, one tenth of its population. The word originated, if I'm not much mistaken, with the Romans, and is somewhat self-explanatory. So, how come it is endlessly used to refer to the destruction of huge quantities of something? It's even described as such in dictionaries now. If you're talking about wiping out 99% of the population, aren't words like 'destroy', 'annihilate', even 'wipe out' so much better?
2007-05-03
16:52:30
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8 answers
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asked by
canislupus
3
in
Words & Wordplay