Comment by lampiaio

2 days ago

Honest advice: free yourself from that and live a happier life. And I don't mean it in an "ignorance is bliss" kind of way, on the contrary really. Otherwise, to be consistent, you'd need to

- demand your salary be paid in salt

- have all arenas be covered in sand

- calculate only with pebbles

- only allow xylophones made of wood

And so on. It's a tiring journey to embark on -- oops, one can only embark on ships...

7 comments

lampiaio

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adfm  2 days ago

I take decimate to mean reduced by 10% and annihilate to destroy utterly.

  • hn_throwaway_99  2 days ago

    I have literally (and I mean literally as in literally, not just for emphasis) never heard anyone in common usage use decimate to mean "reduce by 10%".

    Meanings change over time, and whenever this comes up it always just feels like some folks are adamant about the archaic usage just to (try to) show how smart they are.

    • ashdksnndck  2 days ago

      And here the clickbait titles on YouTube had me thinking “decimate” is a synonym for “insult”.