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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Usage
"Half the poulation was decimated"
From the lips of Stephen Fry, no less, on his current TV show (still on as I write), talking about the effect, so he said, of the English Civil War on Ireland: "Half the population was decimated."
I say, you chaps. I may have been dragged kicking and screaming to the point where I accept that people today use decimate to mean devastate, but this is ridiculous.
Katy Jennison
spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @
I say, you chaps. I may have been dragged kicking and screaming to the point where I accept that people today use decimate to mean devastate, but this is ridiculous.
Katy Jennison
spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @
Top answer
[nq:1]From the lips of Stephen Fry, no less, on his current TV show (still on as I write), talking about ... [/nq] It's simple arithmetic. To decimate half a population would mean to reduce that half by one tenth; so the total population would be reduced by one twentieth.
- [nq:1]From the lips of Stephen Fry, no less, on his current TV show (still on as I write), talking about ...
- [/nq] It's simple arithmetic.
- To decimate half a population would mean to reduce that half by one tenth; so the total population would be reduced by one twentieth.
- Perhaps he should have said, "The population was vigintified".
- Don Kansas City
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38 Answers
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[nq:1]From the lips of Stephen Fry, no less, on his current TV show (still on as I write), talking about ... and screaming to the point where I accept that people today use decimate to mean devastate, but this is ridiculous.[/nq]
It's simple arithmetic. To decimate half a population would mean to reduce that half by one tenth; so the total population would be reduced by one twentieth.
Perh
It's simple arithmetic. To decimate half a population would mean to reduce that half by one tenth; so the total population would be reduced by one twentieth.
Perh
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[nq:2]From the lips of Stephen Fry, no less, on his ... today use decimate to mean devastate, but this is ridiculous.[/nq]
[nq:1]It's simple arithmetic. To decimate half a population would mean to reduce that half by one tenth; so the total population would be reduced by one twentieth. Perhaps he should have said, "The population was vigintified".[/nq]
Hmmm..nice try, but he actually added
[nq:1]It's simple arithmetic. To decimate half a population would mean to reduce that half by one tenth; so the total population would be reduced by one twentieth. Perhaps he should have said, "The population was vigintified".[/nq]
Hmmm..nice try, but he actually added
00
****, too much wine, or something - that should read "population", of course.
Katy Jennison
spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @
Katy Jennison
spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @
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[nq:1]****, too much wine, or something - that should read "population", of course.[/nq]
Wine can do terrible tings to yer consonomants.
Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 22 years.
(for e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van)
Wine can do terrible tings to yer consonomants.
Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 22 years.
(for e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van)
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[nq:1]Don A. Gilmore wrote[/nq]
[nq:2]It's simple arithmetic. To decimate half a population would mean ... twentieth. Perhaps he should have said, "The population was vigintified".[/nq]
[nq:1]Hmmm..nice try, but he actually added "one in ten of the male population was killed".[/nq]
And the male population is half of the the (total) population, innit? Seems to me, Stephen was right on;
[nq:2]It's simple arithmetic. To decimate half a population would mean ... twentieth. Perhaps he should have said, "The population was vigintified".[/nq]
[nq:1]Hmmm..nice try, but he actually added "one in ten of the male population was killed".[/nq]
And the male population is half of the the (total) population, innit? Seems to me, Stephen was right on;
00
[nq:1]From the lips of Stephen Fry, no less, on his current TV show(still on as I write), talking about the ... and screaming to the point where I accept that people today use decimate to mean devastate, but this is ridiculous.[/nq]
It's time somebody took that man in hand. A brain the size of a planet, and uses it to clean lavatories. Mind you, I'm happy for the other half of the population.
It's time somebody took that man in hand. A brain the size of a planet, and uses it to clean lavatories. Mind you, I'm happy for the other half of the population.
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[nq:1]****, too much wine, or something - that should read "population",of course.[/nq]
You too? Do we need an AUE dry-out week, or something? I prefer to think you had in mind a portmanteau of "population" and "pullulation" and nearly got there.
Mike.
You too? Do we need an AUE dry-out week, or something? I prefer to think you had in mind a portmanteau of "population" and "pullulation" and nearly got there.
Mike.
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[nq:1]From the lips of Stephen Fry, no less, on his current TV show (still on as I write), talking about ... and screaming to the point where I accept that people today use decimate to mean devastate, but this is ridiculous.[/nq]
Means the same as "The population was half decimated".
5%.
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Means the same as "The population was half decimated".
5%.
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
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[nq:2]Hmmm..nice try, but he actually added "one in ten of the male population was killed".[/nq]
[nq:1]And the male population is half of the the (total) population, innit? Seems to me, Stephen was right on; it just required a bit of thinking by the listener to realize that.[/nq]
Ah - I must have been so overcome by outrage that I missed that bit.
Katy Jennison
spamtrap: remov
[nq:1]And the male population is half of the the (total) population, innit? Seems to me, Stephen was right on; it just required a bit of thinking by the listener to realize that.[/nq]
Ah - I must have been so overcome by outrage that I missed that bit.
Katy Jennison
spamtrap: remov
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