Internet child porn investigators net South Aust MP A South Australian state Labor MP has been arrested and charged for using the Internet to access child exploitation material, in an ongoing police operation called Operation Decimate*. According to South Australia Police, the MP was arrested at home and charged with possession of child pornography, an aggravated count of …
Standard English is "a large proportion of", and isn't using standard english a good thing?
But perhaps the SA Police force is pedantic, and use the word 'decimate' to indicate that
(a) as with the Theban Legion, the process will be repeated until none remain, or
(b) all the leaders will be executed, or
(c) that the offenders are turned on their friends, or
(d) members of the police force have been turned on their own associates.
The word "decimate" was used to define the execution of 1 in 10 of a legion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_%28Roman_army%29) but common usage is now towards a larger percentage (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/decimate - "to destroy a great number or proportion of").
Language is not defined by rules, it's defined by usage and "decimate" now generally refers to a somewhat higher percentage than 1 in 10.
Standard English is the English spoken by native English speakers - as opposed to Queen's English or Poncy Pedant's English.
Do you not see the irony of your claiming a meaning in English by quoting a foreign language?
Anyway, many words in English do not technically mean what the user thinks they mean, but as the listeners think it means what the user thinks it means then in reality it does actually [in standard English] mean what the user thinks it means.
As a number of examples:
Broadband - = high throughput even though typically it is baseband and not broadband
Bad / sick / awesome etc - usage rarely meets dictionary definition
Gay - doesn't mean "happy" any more. Although to be fair most of the people I know who identify themselves as gay are generally rather cheerful souls.
Pirate - even though pedants try to separate galleon based raping murderers with wooden legs, eye-patches and parrots from spotty freetards who don't want to pay for shit, the general public, when presented with the word "piracy" thinks of music downloading.
and so on. However if you check your favourite dictionary (or http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/decimate?view=uk if you can't be arsed) you will see that the primary meaning for "decimate" is "to kill, destroy or remove a large proportion of".
Welcome to the 21st century - I am sure you will come to love it in time.
Even if one refuses to accept conventional use of a word - it's in the Oxford English Dictionary:
'to subject to severe loss'
If the OED isn't an authority on what is an acceptable use of a word, who is? Can one of the "thumbs-downers" point to a more authoritative source that says '1 in 10' is the only acceptable usage?
It is harsh punishment for a legion to have a tenth killed in a single incident outside of a battle.
I would consider loosing a tenth of my fingers a severe loss. Also a tenth of my wealth.
The OED definition is compatible with the literal translation, and it doesn't say "most" or "majority".
No, as with all dictionaries, OED does not authorize acceptable use of the words. Its function is to explain the past and current usage of the words. Society and custom determine acceptability, dictionaries determine definitions based on observed usage. Etymological dictionaries may try to determine how that usage arose or explain the root origin, but none of that goes to authorize acceptability.
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Note also; decimation was done by the Romans to their *own* troops as a punishment for losing.
I await with bated breath the announcement that 1 in 10 of South Australian police have been arrested and charged for using the Internet to access child exploitation material.
But that doesn't stop the police from dropping some pretty heavy hints - how many South Australian MP's are there? And how many were seen leaving police stations that day, looking a bit shell-shocked?
One of the few things the Ozzies get right - actually presuming that suspects are innocent until proven guilty, rather than the current trial by tabloid that is the norm for the UK.
born again Christian types whose attends church *every* Sunday and teaches Sunday school?
The rest of me is thinking that everyone has a right to a fair trial and anonymity until they are convicted (and their reputation is destroyed anyway) or found not guilty and allowed to get on with the rest of their life.
Unlike the situation in the UK press. *Unless* you're a premiership footballer who can afford a *very* good lawyer that can explain that while their client *is* seen by 20 million people every Saturday how many other people he sleeps with (did I say people, I meant women), how often he does so, and how much (if anything) they are paid when he is not at home with his loving wife and young children is *entirely* his own business.
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