Words Mean Things

For our second entry, we’re taking on one of the most misused words in the media—DECIMATE.

“Deci” comes from the Latin word “decem,” which means “ten.”

Decimate is the English derivative of the Latin “decimatus,” which means “to reduce by one-tenth.”

In ancient Roman practice, this was something done when a military unit—up to and including a full Legion—failed their leaders in some way. Perhaps it was losing a battle, or avoiding one altogether; perhaps it was just a failure to maintain proper discipline among the ranks. Decimations were also enacted on civilians, for example, a city which rose up in rebellion against the Roman government.

The punishment of that unit or population known as a “decimation” started with each affected person drawing lots. One in every ten lots was marked; the people who drew the marked lots were killed. In the case of a civilian population, the killings were done by the military. In the case of a military population, the killings were done by the victims’ fellow soldiers. The idea was to scare the living daylights out of the surviving 90% of the population, thus convincing them to fall in line to prevent being further decimated or destroyed outright, which the Romans were known to do on occasion.

Starting in the mid-17th century, “decimate” began being used to refer to near-total and/or somewhat wanton destruction of anything or any population. It has specifically been used to describe the reduction by death of a population due to widespread disease, such as cholera, but in modern times also for concepts not involving death, such as the failure of a business or industrial sector. Such use dilutes and undermines the true meaning of the word, of course, but modern media continues to misuse this word.

To recap:
*** Decimate, modern usage: Widespread destruction or reduction of something—a population, city, landscape, business, industry, etc.
*** Decimate, actual meaning: To reduce a given population by one-tenth.

The next time you use decimate, take a moment and think about what you really mean and what you’re trying to say. Be precise in your word choices.

It matters…because WORDS MEAN THINGS.