decimating DECIMATE

[Mark Mandel]

Also on power-of-ten prefixes: ISTR a comment here some time ago about
"centibillionaires" used to mean 'people with $100 billion or more' rather
than what it would mean in SI (metric system standard), 'people with 1/100
of a billion dollars = $10M'. "He{c,k}to-", which is the SI for 100x, is
unfamiliar to most people.

Similarly the sf author Lois M. Bujold used "millifennigs" for the units of
a hyperinflated currency, where "kilo-" would have made more sense.

m a m

On Jan 3, 2008 6:25 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> That explains why every time I use "decimate," I feel guilty.
>
>  JL
>
> RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
> Subject: decimating DECIMATE
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I agree that most of the arguments about DECIMATE are ignorant and
> peevish,=20
> but I don't think it is entirely a matter of "the etymological fallacy."
> At=20
> least as important is the relative transparency of "DECI" (as in
> "decimal,"=20
> etc.), which has a sort of independent morphosemantic existence that
> allows=20
> (causes?) folks to associate the word with the meaning 'ten'. People who
> hav=
> e studied=20
> Latin and the Romance languages--educated people who are the most likely
> to=20
> concern themselves with prescriptivist regulations--will be especially=20
> susceptible to the association, but that does not make it any less of a
> ling=
> uistic=20
> reality.=20
>
> Indeed, I have to confess that, when I read the following sentence this=20
> morning, my first inclination was to giggle a bit at the apparent
> morphosema=
> ntic=20
> solecism:
>
> The Mississippi coast has been decimated by hurricanes twice in 36 years.
> ..=
> .=20
> due to its storm-prone location. [Rob Young, "Coastal Buyout Applause,"=20
> Orlando Sentinel, 12-3-07, pA19]
>
> Why didn't the author (of this intelligent, well-written article) write=20
> instead "ravished" or "largely destroyed"? Apparently, "deci-" doesn't
> signa=
> l 'ten'=20
> to HIM, but in the immediate context of the other numbers, it serves as
> an=20
> unintentional in-your-face usage to the peevish. (Maybe it wasn't=20
> unintentional--he also says "due to" and not "owing to", thus violating
> anot=
> her=20
> prescdriptivist maxim.) Should the author of an impressive article in a
> more=
> -or-less major=20
> city newspaper NOT be aware that in this context "decimate" will bring
> forth=
> =20
> smug irritation in many linguistically insecure people with a vague memory
> o=
> f=20
> Latin instruction (and who always did well in freshman English)?
>
> Who is more peevish, the prescriptivist who scorns those who do not
> recogniz=
> e=20
> a synchronic morphosemantic connection between "decimal" and "decimate"
> or=20
> the smug linguist who scorns those for whom the connection is
> linguistically=
> =20
> robust and indeed imperative? Whose sociolinguistic perch is more
> privileged=
> ?
>
> In a message dated 1/2/08 10:32:31 PM, chris at LASCRIBE.NET writes:
>
>
> > Laurence Horn wrote:
> > > My favorite comment is the one below, on "decimate" (topic of a
> > > recent thread here).=A0 I'll try to remember to trot it out next time
> I
> > > teach the etymological fallacy
> >=20
>
>
>
>
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