[ADS- L] Ev id ence for DECIMATE ( 'one in ten')

[Douglas G. Wilson]

A little late, maybe, but pretty explicit:

http://books.google.com/books?id=pFRNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA13&dq=%22decimated+that+is%22&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0

1884: <<It is accounted a terrible slaughter when an army is
decimated, that is, one out of ten killed, yet in the case cited the
city is more than decimated every year by disease, ....>>

Reference is to a high cholera death rate (12% per year) in a South
American city.

-- Doug Wilson


--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.0/1216 - Release Date: 1/9/2008 10:16 AM

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