The literal meaning of decimate is to kill 1/10 of the population, but it has taken on a figurative meaning of massive epic death. (My theory is that it has taken on this figurative meaning because it's a really scary sounding word, based on pure aural aesthetics).
We need another word - equally scary sounding - to handle the figurative meaning of decimate by having a literal meaning that's the exact opposite: to kill 9/10 of the population and leave only 1/10 alive.
Suggestions welcome.
5 comments:
You mean specific to 90%? Because there are lots of less specific words, like holocaust, genocide (when it's applicable), mass slaughter, and such.
Yeah, 90% dead 10% alive specifically. Originally I was thinking that the meaning of decimate should be changed to mean 10% alive instead of 10% dead, but the 10% dead meaning is still necessary for historical contexts.
I was thinking something with ennea, since ennea means "nine."
Enneate? Which made me think of annihilate, which means to wipe out completely.
...so enneatyatei.e. to wipe out ninety percent. :-)
bah, ran it all together
my word is: enneatyate
a combo of nine(ty) and annihilate.
Decimate comes from the Latin... meaning "to reduce BY one tenth". Ergo, a perhaps more apropriate word for "recucing TO one tenth" would be nonagintamate (from Nonaginta meaning 90. It's a bit of a mouthful, but... :)
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