Rain?

[cvchief]

Irregardless (ahem), the word comes from the Roman (I believe it was Roman) practice of killing 1/10 of the men in a village for punishment of some sort. The "deci" means 1/10. If cholera decimated a population, it killed 1/10 of the people by the "true" meaning of the word.

Actually, I passed my 4 years of Latin more on history and culture, than amo, amas, amamas, amatis, abant or was it agricola?

Anyway, decimate was a punishment in the legions. Unit breaks or screws up, bam, the commander comes by and kills one of every ten. Did worlds of good stopping unscheduled retreats....

---------- Post added December 16th, 2013 at 09:28 AM ----------

Well, you got me interested, so I did a little looky-look.

It appears we are both falling victim to word snobbery. According to this article:

A likely answer is that people are falling prey to what is known as the Etymological Fallacy, a tendency to believe that a word’s current meaning should be dictated by its roots. Unfortunately for the etymological purists, decimate comes from the Medieval Latin word decimatus, which means ‘to tithe’. The word was then assigned retrospectively to the Roman practice of punishing every tenth soldier.

---------- Post added December 16th, 2013 at 09:30 AM ----------

Maybe I *should* use octopodes?

Of course we only saw ONE octopus at Paridisio yesterday.

 

[Christi]

Port is open!

 

[cvchief]

Port is open!

Darn it.... I was all wound up about this East Side thing. Sounds like they might cancel the east as both sides are gonna be a lil' rough?

 

[Skittl1321]

Tomorrow is looking promising actually - maybe a slightly delayed departure, but wind direction has shifted and decreased winds predicted. It's not hopeless at all for tomorrow - but we won't know until tomorrow!!

Yep! We are heading out in an hour, waiting on some cruisers- I think Alison is bummed her day off was canceled.

---------- Post added December 16th, 2013 at 08:34 AM ----------

Darn it.... I was all wound up about this East Side thing. Sounds like they might cancel the east as both sides are gonna be a lil' rough?

Call Alison! You have 45 minutes to catch her boat!

 

[cvchief]

Yep! We are heading out in an hour, waiting on some cruisers- I think Alison is bummed her day off was canceled.


Call Alison! You have 45 minutes to catch her boat!

I know, I know. If I can't do the East side, I am taking the girls to Buccanos, I guess.

 

[Mossman]

Irregardless (ahem), the word comes from the Roman (I believe it was Roman) practice of killing 1/10 of the men in a village for punishment of some sort. The "deci" means 1/10. If cholera decimated a population, it killed 1/10 of the people by the "true" meaning of the word.

That's fine and dandy for the Romans, but since we don't decimate much in the true sense of the word and since the word sounds so cool as it rolls off your tongue, we've recycled it into something people can say more often.

Today, the standard usage of decimate is in the sense of overall destruction so that is now the correct usage. While the obsolete/archaic 1/10 reference may still also be correct, don't be surprised if no one understands your meaning.

Language evolves. Our English is very different from the English spoken in Shakespeare's time, for instance. Some words have disappeared from the modern lexicon, some have evolved (like decimate), and plenty of new words have been added, enough so that Shakespeare would have just as hard a time understanding modern English speakers as we have understanding him.

For instance, a computer used to be a person who did computations. Nowdays, when I talk about getting on my computer, no one except you thinks I'm literally mounting a human being!

 

[cvchief]

That article highlighted that exact point, Moss.

For instance, a computer used to be a person who did computations. Nowdays, when I talk about getting on my computer, no one except you thinks I'm literally mounting a human being!

As for mounting a human being, no, however I try not to think about your private computer practices.

 

[Skittl1321]

I know, I know. If I can't do the East side, I am taking the girls to Buccanos, I guess.

You missed a big lion fish in Columbia Deep. Alison got it. Today's cruisers were really nice, and pretty good divers.

 

[stevep4444]

You missed a big lion fish in Columbia Deep. Alison got it. Today's cruisers were really nice, and pretty good divers.

No offence to cruisers but I just can't see myself diving with a dive op that has cruisers on a regular basis. Not that I equate cruisers with bad diving skills (but they generally do have a good appetite) but I do equate cruisers with first dive of their trip divers and all the issues and restrictions for the dive op that come with that. No thanks.

 

[cvchief]

No offence to cruisers but I just can't see myself diving with a dive op that has cruisers on a regular basis. Not that I equate cruisers with bad diving skills (but they generally do have a good appetite) but I do equate cruisers with first dive of their trip divers and all the issues and restrictions for the dive op that come with that. No thanks.

Good luck with that. You can't swing a dead lionfish without hitting a cruiser. Of course I get if you go with the resort boats there might be less.