(no subject)
"decimate" is one of the supreme shibboleths of the language prescriptivists; supposedly it should only be used to mean "destroy one in ten" rather than "destroy a large part of." However, most rational sources maintain that "destroy a large part of" is the only sense of the word that is ever used (the earliest cites are 17th-century, which is almost the same time "decimate" entered the English language).
Yesterday I found what is the first actual use of "decimate" to mean "destroy one in ten" that I have ever seen. It's in the book Dune: The Battle of Corrin. The context is a fleet of ships outfitted with dangerous "space-folding" engines that allow very fast travel, but 1 in 10 of the ships that makes one of these space jumps is destroyed. So the following text occurs:
Since she had never adequately solved the spacefolder navigation problem, many soldiers were losing their lives. Each time the battle groups jumped from one target to the next, their numbers were decimated. And decimated again before they reached the next target. Oh, the incredible cost!
To me this usage is just bizarre.
Yesterday I found what is the first actual use of "decimate" to mean "destroy one in ten" that I have ever seen. It's in the book Dune: The Battle of Corrin. The context is a fleet of ships outfitted with dangerous "space-folding" engines that allow very fast travel, but 1 in 10 of the ships that makes one of these space jumps is destroyed. So the following text occurs:
Since she had never adequately solved the spacefolder navigation problem, many soldiers were losing their lives. Each time the battle groups jumped from one target to the next, their numbers were decimated. And decimated again before they reached the next target. Oh, the incredible cost!
To me this usage is just bizarre.