One thing about the Doctor Who three-parter season finale remains to be said

[jwgh]

In it, the word 'decimate' is used correctly.

Comments

[pjamesharvey.livejournal.com]

I cringed internally when The Master said 'decimate', and then was surprised when it was used correctly. It then seemed a little pretentious in its use, like the writer was showing off his knowledge rather than simply using a word, but that's probably only because the word is misused so often. It's good that the language is being reclaimed ever so slightly in such a popular show.

I found it amusing that five minutes after Jack Harkness mentioned a connection with the Face of Boe and living to be a million the Wikipedia page for the Face of Boe had been updated. That's some quick editing!

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

Now all my fangirl friends are going to want to sit on the Face of Boe.

Speaking of continuity

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Re: Speaking of continuity

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

He could have argued that the 1/10th that was destroyed included the wrist, and varioujs other body parts that connected other parts to each other.

[samantha2074.livejournal.com]

I agree with Jan Freeman in this column. Adhering to such a rigid definition of decimate renders the word essentially useless. When the hell are you going to use it?

[jwgh]

Fair enough. I should have said 'in its classical sense' instead of 'correctly'.

[jwgh]

I do consider using it to mean 'destroyed 90% of' (as opposed to 'a lot of') to be somewhat incorrect, because it depends on a false derivation, but I'm not sure how common that is anyway.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Better to use the right word instead and put "decimate" in the attic.