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What does it mean to decimate someone?
English Language Learners Definition of decimate : to destroy a large number of (plants, animals, people, etc.) : to severely damage or destroy a large part of (something) See the full definition for decimate in the English Language Learners Dictionary.
Why did decimate change meaning?
In ancient Rome, they say, cowardly soldiers were often punished thus. Your local pedant may go so far as to add that decem was the Latin word for 10, hence English decimal (relating to tenths) and decathlon (athletic contest with 10 events). The extended sense of decimate, they say, is a newfangled aberration.
What is the root word of decimate?
Decimate was first used in 1600 and was derived from the Latin word decimatus, which meant the “the removal or destruction of one-tenth”.
Can a person be decimated?
NPR’s journalists routinely use the word “decimate” when they mean to denote “completely ruined or destroyed.” “Decimate” means to kill every tenth person or soldier as a means of mass punishment. We counted, and “decimate” or “decimated” has been said 44 times on-air in the last year, not including hourly newscasts.
What is another word for decimated?
Synonyms such as destroy (for people and animals) and reduce (for institutions) are appropriate alternatives.
Did decimation actually happen?
Usage. The earliest documented decimation occurred in 471 BC during the Roman Republic’s early wars against the Volsci and was recorded by Livy. The total number of men killed through decimation is not known, but it varied on occasion between 1,000 from 10,000 men and 48-50 from a cohort of around 500 men.
What is the use of decimation?
Decimation reduces the original sample rate of a sequence to a lower rate. It is the opposite of interpolation. decimate lowpass filters the input to guard against aliasing and downsamples the result.
What is the opposite of decimated?
Opposite of to completely destroy or devastate. build. construct. erect. raise.
What does it mean to annex someone?
(Entry 1 of 2) transitive verb. 1 : to attach as a quality, consequence, or condition Many privileges were annexed exclusively to royalty. 2 archaic : to join together materially : unite.
Who ordered decimation?
Roman general Crassus
Roman general Crassus ordered decimation after the defeat by Spartacus in 71 BC. Julius Caesar threatened to decimate his ninth legion during the Roman Civil War (49–45 BC).
What is a synonym for decimate?
In this page you can discover 23 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for decimate, like: destroy, demolish, reduce, annihilate, kill, slaughter, wreck, butcher, massacre, crimes and help.
Which is the closest synonym for the word decimated?
decimate
- annihilate.
- exterminate.
- obliterate.
- slaughter.
- wipe out.
- butcher.
- execute.
- massacre.
Is the word “decimate” entitled to it?
To decimate has been used to mean to inflict a heavy loss since at least the 1660s. I think that when a word’s had a consistent meaning for over 300 years, it’s entitled to it. But even more importantly, to decimate has never meant to execute or reduce by 10\%.
What does it mean to be decimated in battle?
Our forces were decimated in the brutal battle. But someone who knows a little about Roman history might take issue with this usage. The word comes from the Latin verb decimare, which meant to kill one in ten of a certain group, as punishment for the whole.
What is the meaning of decimation?
This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity. verb (used with object), dec·i·mat·ed, dec·i·mat·ing. to destroy a great number or proportion of: The population was decimated by a plague. to select by lot and kill every tenth person of. Obsolete. to take a tenth of or from.
Can ‘decimate’ be used as a synonym for ‘devastate’?
It’s totally fine to use ‘decimate’ as a synonym for ‘devastate’. This is why. The word decimate is what we might delicately refer to as a problem word. It seems to invite spleen, at least on the part of a small but committed group of linguistic enthusiasts who feel that it is often misused.