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The writer and history buff in me loves that you have pointed this out. But I think the word "decimate" decoupled from its original meaning sometime between the fall of the Roman Empire and today.

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As fellow history buff, I was fascinated to learn that decimation was used as recently as the 1930's. By Italy against Libyan tribesmen.

But, I agree with you decimate has long had alternative meaning of "destroy almost completely"

That is interesting. And it would make sense, given that 1930s Italy was run by a dictator who had a personal obsession with proclaiming himself the heir the Roman Empire. This is a fun tangent. And apologies to everyone else who's trying to stay on topic. This is why I love nested comment systems.

I think this happened sometimes during the last 15 years. I was surprised when I came to the US and was exposed to Fox news, I was surprised that they were using the word incorrectly all the time. "The forces were decimated in a surprise attack..."

If enough people use it that way, it becomes the correct usage, of course. It is how languages (d)evolve.

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