[Ads-l] decimate

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Mon Feb 29 12:10:20 UTC 2016


Donald Trump last week: "Christians...are being decimated in this country."

I confess I haven't found these words online.  But he's not the only one to
assign the meaning of "harm greatly" to the word.

JL

On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 12:24 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: decimate
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "To destroy handily or completely; undermine completely the credibility
> of":
>
> 2010 Chicago, Ill., attorney, age 45:  She got up in front of Congress, and
> they decimated her and made her look like a kook.
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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