{"id":44280,"date":"2026-04-09T17:14:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=44280"},"modified":"2026-04-09T17:14:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:14:33","slug":"word-of-the-day-1104","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2026\/04\/09\/word-of-the-day-1104\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Of The Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Decimate<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. history :<\/strong> to select by lot and kill every tenth member of
    \ndecimate a regiment<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. :<\/strong> to exact a tax of 10 percent from
    \n… poor as a decimated Cavalier<\/em> …
    \n– John Dryden<\/li>\n
  3. a :<\/strong> to reduce drastically especially in number
    \nAn outbreak of cholera decimated the population.<\/em>
    \nKamieniecki’s return comes at a crucial time for a pitching staff that has been decimated by injuries.
    \n– Jason Diamos<\/em>
    \nb :<\/strong> to cause great destruction or harm to
    \nA fire decimated the city.<\/em>
    \nan industry decimated by recession<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    I’ve noticed the word decimate<\/em> has been coming into vogue recently. Each time someone on the television uses it, either I or my Arts Editor howls at the television that it’s not a synonym for destroy, but for destroying 10% of something, as a trace of the word’s etymology reveals.<\/p>\n

    Today, I decided to check it, keeping in mind that a word’s origins are not the last word in definition, but .. oh, you get it. Good.<\/p>\n

    So, as we see above, the third definition, down in the list, makes their use, well, valid<\/em>. Those using the word still come across as poseurs<\/em>, but in our current era that’s hardly a surprise. People claw for recognition these days, from influencers to reporters, because prestige and power can originate from simply rising above the general run of humanity.<\/p>\n

    Noted in “White House picks a fight over its \u2018objectives\u2019 in Iran, but reality stands in its way<\/em><\/a>,” Steve Benen, Maddowblog<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

    Iran\u2019s navy has certainly been decimated<\/a>, but the other four objectives \u2014 the ones outlined on, to borrow Hegseth\u2019s phrasing, \u201cday one\u201d \u2014 have plainly not been met<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Decimate: history : to select by lot and kill every tenth member of decimate a regiment : to exact a tax of 10 percent from … poor as a decimated Cavalier … – John Dryden a : to reduce drastically especially in number An outbreak of cholera decimated the population. \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44282,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44280\/revisions\/44282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}