The word decimate has a grisly etymology. It derives from a Latin military term meaning “to execute every tenth man in an army unit”— the penalty for a failed mutiny. As a result, some sticklers insist that the English word decimate should be used only to indicate “destroying a fraction of something” rather than “destroy completely” or “utterly wipe out.” Who’s right? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Decimate Etymology”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Evan from Dallas, Texas.
Well, welcome to the program, Evan. What’s on your mind today?
Well, I had a question about the word decimate,
Because I had always thought that it had a connotation with one-tenth,
Like to destroy one-tenth, but I keep hearing it meaning to destroy completely or to obliterate.
I was wondering if you could help me with that.
I think we can help you with this.
This is a fairly common question, isn’t it, Martha?
Yes, it is.
And you’re right.
You see that Latin root for the word 10, don’t you?
In decimate, in decimal, in the name December as well, which was the 10th month of the Roman calendar.
And I suppose, Evan, that you’re thinking back to the grisly etymology of this word, right?
Right.
And which was what?
Well, it was back to the Romans, I believe, and it was to eliminate one in ten men of an army.
Right, right.
If soldiers mutinied, the policy was that the generals would just line up the soldiers and they’d draw lots and they’d just kill one in ten, every tenth guy.
It was a really horrible, horrible practice.
And so that’s where we get the word decimate.
There was a related Latin word like that.
However, that word has changed over the centuries.
We’re not doing that anymore.
No, by the mid-17th century, we see the word decimate used to mean imposing a 10% tax.
And certainly by the 18th or early 19th century, it was a more generalized term.
It didn’t have that literal meaning.
And that’s what we often see with etymologies, that words will travel from their original grisly, creepy meaning to something that’s more general.
And although for people like you and me, Evan, it’s really fascinating to know the roots of that icky word.
You know, words have a life of their own, and now people use it to mean to destroy a large portion of something.
And I don’t think that we should be sticklers about that at all.
All right.
You did mention something about utterly wipe out or utterly destroy that you’re bothered when you hear the word decimate used that way.
Yeah. Like I remember seeing a news broadcast several years ago about a building being torn down.
And I remember distinctly the reporter saying that the building was decimated when it was just completely leveled.
Yeah. OK. I think I think your discomfort with that is absolutely legitimate.
Wouldn’t you agree?
I would, yeah, absolutely.
That’s a misuse of the word decimate because it doesn’t mean to completely destroy.
Another way that people tend to misuse it, and probably the only way that I have a problem with it,
Is when they use this very powerful word to describe something that is not very significant.
They’ll say, I was decimated by Thanksgiving dinner last night.
You know, I was so full.
I’m like, no, you weren’t really decimated by it.
Maybe you were made drowsy or something, but it didn’t kill you.
Right, right. I think the idea of utterly destroying something or wiping something out is not appropriate when you’re using decimate.
But if you were to say something like the events of last year decimated his 401k, I would think that that would be legitimate.
Yeah, I would agree, you know, to destroy the better part of or to cause a great loss. Yeah.
Yeah. So I think the bottom line here is that a lot of times we may know the etymology of a word, but language happens.
You know, language changes.
You can’t take all words back to the etymological roots and say somehow that that is the one and true meaning of a word, right, Evan?
I mean, otherwise we wouldn’t be speaking this form of English.
We’d be speaking something else.
The language would be dramatically different if that were the case.
The etymology doesn’t win when it comes to defining words.
But it’s still cool to know, right, Evan?
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
All right.
Well, thanks for an interesting call.
Well, thank you.
Okay.
Thank you, Evan.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
Bye.
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