Decimate

I wanted to post this although some will think it probably has no place in this area, I do. World politics and events areas are littered with this word.

Just so everyone knows:

This term derives from a grisly practice among the ancient Roman military: To punish mutinous or cowardly troops, every tenth soldier from those units was routinely selected by lot to be killed by fellow soldiers. The verb for this practice was decimare, from Latin decimus, meaning "tenth" (and a relative of such words as decade and decimal). Strictly speaking, therefore, decimate means to "destroy one-tenth of a population."

I think that the word most people are looking for is obliterate. Otherwise know as the act of wiping something out, to leave no trace.

Thanks. Hehe, I'm sure to get some fan mail about this.


Good times.