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.
You mean specific to 90%? Because there are lots of less specific words, like holocaust, genocide (when it's applicable), mass slaughter, and such.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 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.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking something with ennea, since ennea means "nine."
ReplyDeleteEnneate? 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
ReplyDeletemy 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... :)
ReplyDelete