[...studiously trying to ignore the drivel of the last hour...]

There's no "vocal minority" doing it, Nigel. There's ordinary people using the words in new ways. Yesterday, I went out into my veg plot with determination and decimated the weeds. Think there's anything wrong with that? "Decimated" has been used in that sense for four hundred years whether you like it or not. The Romans used the word "decimatio" for the practice, but it took another 1500 years before the word popped up in English, and then it usually referred to the taking of tithe. The supply of iceberg lettuces this winter was decimated by bad weather in southern Spain. No-one bothered to check whether it was one in ten. It also means the killing of one-tenth of Roman legions. No problem If the context is understood. Its commonest 16th century meaning was the taking of tithes, nothing to do with punishments. Use it that way if you like, though no-one will know what you're talking about, but it has at least as much historical validity apropos of the use of English as the punishment sense you're valiantly defending. No-one is telling anyone else what they should or shouldn't do. You seem to be accusing me of insisting on its modern usage only, but actually I'm just reflecting what the usage is. If you insist on its historical meaning only, you're at risk of sounding a bit quaint. I'm left-handed. That makes me sinister. The English language is one of the last great bastions of democracy. Anyone for a gay evening at the fair?