Decimate: the real meaning

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

Nah, he clearly means that the perp diminished their lives by 10%. Or maybe
all they have left is 10%.

In a message dated 1/10/08 10:20:25 PM, george.thompson at NYU.EDU writes:


> is "to screw up"
>
> The Daily News (New York) January 10, 2008, p. 4 of the KSI supplement
> (Kings Co/Staten Island) has a story on a perp who has been sentenced for a murder
> in the course of a robbery; his sentence is (quoting):
>
> a fitting punishment for decimating "a lot of people's lives," a Queens
> judge said.
>
> "Decimating" seems to be the word choice of Nicole Bode, the reporter, not
> that of the judge.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
> Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>




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