The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #95824   Message #1867923
Posted By: The Fooles Troupe
25-Oct-06 - 03:31 AM
Thread Name: BS: Who are 'The Dickens'?
Subject: RE: BS: Who are 'The Dickens'?
"Decimate" used to mean

'kill 1 in 10 as an example to the others' -

now ill-educated jouornalists have turned it into

'kill nearly eveybody in some sort of sensational disaster'...