Today’s Word

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This is for Nathan.

decimate \DESS-uh-mayt\ verb
1 : to take or destroy the tenth part of
*2 : to cause great destruction or harm to

10 Responses to “Today’s Word”

Ilya Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Nathan has vented on this quite some time ago, so given that it is not really random with you, Michelle, I am guessing that you had to decimate some weeds in your garden today?
Michelle Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Nah, it’s the WotD I get in my e-mail. I get one from Merriam-Webster and another from the OED.
Nathan Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 10:59 am
I still abhor the modern definition. I’ll only use def. 1.

Sue me!
Michelle Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Are you worth enough to make it worth my time?
Eric Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
The problem with the first definition is that even if it’s a literal derivation of the word’s roots, it’s kind of silly:

PRESIDENT: Report! How did the mission go?

GENERAL: Sir, I regret to say the mission did not go well. We attempted to decimate the enemy’s factories, but then some moron dropped an extra bomb and we managed to destroy eleven percent of the enemy’s imdustrial capacity instead.

PRESIDENT: What! No! No!

GENERAL: I’m afraid so, sir. We’re court-martialing the man right now.

PRESIDENT: I want him shot. My God. How could this happen?

GENERAL: It was close, sir. The mission almost succeeded.

PRESIDENT: So close…. I need a moment alone, gentlemen.

Part of the beauty of English is that for such an ugly and gutteral language, it can be wonderfully fanciful and poetic. It’s at it’s best when it doesn’t mean what it says.

I won’t use the first definition because, really, how often are you going to need to be that precise. The only time I can think of is maybe if I’m playing a wargame with friends, and I’d look like an even bigger ‘tard than usual:

ME: Boy, I sure just decimated your fleet!

OPPONENT: What? You destroyed two fighters, and I still have two dreadnoughts, a war sun, two cruisers, two carriers and eleven fighters left. All you have left is one stinking destroyer–do you even want me to roll the dice or do you want to just remove it and let me bombard the planet already?

ME: Yep. Joke’s on you, pal. You’ve been decimated. Taken down. Bang.

OPPONENT: Just shut up and roll to see if you take out another goddamn fighter before the destroyer bites it already. Idiot.
Eric Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
(Oh, BTW: that whole last bit was a Twilight Imperium reference.)
Michelle Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
What? You’re saying it’s a bad thing to be pedantic?
Nathan Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Random guy on street: “Hey Eric, what happened to your head?”

Eric: “What do you mean?”

Random guy: “Well, youknow, it looks like a hunk of it’s missing.”

Eric: “Oh that, That’s nothing. Nathan sent me a free decimation for my birthday.”
Eric Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Nathan, see, you just proved too much: if my head was decimated, I wouldn’t be very likely to notice. I mean, at this very moment I’m overdue for a haircut, so 10% could just be hair. Some big deal that would be!
Michelle Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
That would really depend upon whether we were working with weight or volume.

My hair was decimated last Thursday, however, despite my thick hair, I don’t think I lost 10% of the weight of my head.