At 06:25 AM 1/30/2008, STAHLKE, HERBERT F wrote: >DD, >Here's the relevant portion of the OED entry for "decimate." {And >cited definition 4b.} . . . DD: I know that the dictionaries go to usage. That hoi polloi use the word in their ignorance of the underlying derivation does not bother me. From a Information Theory view, I know what they mean. >If you look at the full entry, the military meaning as applied to >the Roman army practice of killing every tenth man in a mutinous >unit is the third meaning. The first two, which are obsolete, are >"tithing" and "dividing into tenths." . . . DD: The point being it originally had the general meaning of one tenth. >I think you may almost be guilty of the etymological fallacy. But >it was only the third meaning, so you're partly exonerated. DD: I think not. I was implying, not the Roman practice so much, as the idea of tenth. Still I fall often to word folly. To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/