[LINK] Rick W's .sig

[Chris Maltby]

> David Lochrin wrote:
>> Even worse, why do people use "decimate" when they mean "lose many"?  I 
>> believe (best to be safe on Link) the word comes from the Roman practice 
>> of killing 1 in 10 men in uncooperative villages.

On Fri, Sep 28, 2007 at 11:59:52AM +1000, Rick Welykochy wrote:
> Google define: says ...
> "Originally meant the killing of one in 10, as the Roman legions once
>  did to punish troops for avoiding going into battle. It should be used
>  only to mean killing, not other destruction, and even with killings,
>  it ideally should be reserved for cases where the idea of one in 10
>  isn't outlandishly off the mark."
> 
> My oops was thinking decimate meant to leave 1/10th alive.

By killing only 1 in 10 you might encourage the other 9 to risk their
lives in battle. A slightly updated version might be a notice reading
"Floggings will continue until morale improves".