Ah, yet another writer who doesn't know the meaning of "Decimate!"

I've got a word to replace "literally" in that sentence. "". That's it. Just stick in "" and the meaning does not change at all. "I've been to hell and back today" is a perfectly fine sentence with an easy to understand meaning.

Ah, the traditional defense of the person who can't be bothered to get things right.

Be that as it may, it happens to be valid in this case. The evolution we're talking about is at least 100 years old.

Yeah, it's a bit like saying using electricity is wrong. Especially that crazy alternating current variety.

The other day, I was having a real hard time with a mission because I forgot to turn AVs off when solo. So I put out a call for help, and with my full team, we nearly decamated that mission!

I'm going to hug you now, just because that was full of awesome!

Sorta like Extreme Maker-over: Hyperbole Edition?

I find it interesting that the American Heritage panel disagrees with you. The majority of them seemed to object less to the quantity of destruction, and more to whether the destruction was killing or not. According to the quote, 66% were willing to accept the usage when a far larger number other than 10% was killed, but only 26% were willing to accept the usage when it referred to non-human death, such as property damage.

I don't think I would agree with the panel, but it does seem that there are two foci to the term: whether it refers to some acceptable range of fraction, and whether it refers to people specifically.

I don't think it's necessarily pseudo-intellectualism or ignorance. I'm a copy editor, and what I often see in colleagues is a belief that English and its proper usage are reasonable, rational and sensible -- or maybe a need for that to be so. So they cling to any facts that seem to allow the use of reason in dictating usage. "Deci" means a tenth so decimate must refer to a tenth of something. "Over" and "above" are spacial concepts, so they don't mean "more than." Same with "under," "beneath" and "less than." I'm still waiting for "autopsy" to be banned from our paper for (supposedly) not meaning what everybody thinks it means. I roll my eyes a lot.

I would love for new terms and usages to catch on only when they are truly clever or useful. I want "literally" never to mean "virtually" and "virtually" to not mean just "in software and/or on the Internet." But I don't feel the need to stop language from changing or to make it always sensible. That would lessen the fun of it for me.

You can write, and sometimes get away with editing, in a way that makes you feel safe and secure, if that's your preference. I don't see the point, but I don't think that makes a person a fake or uninformed. Just sometimes annoying.

Language changes, and even the editors at the most influential publications or publishing houses (certainly not me), the professors at the greatest universities, and even the stuffiest of old English teachers (who may have the most influence of all) can do no more than tap the brakes.

The Electric-Knight ______ Malfaz _____ Zox'Oculox

@Zethustra

"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan

www.pauldamonthomas.com - Original Music

You intend to eliminate English by removing its roots?

Only on the internet...

Are you trying to tell me that "autopsy" doesn't mean "psychic car" ??? Curses!!!


Cheers,
4

Interesting, so, do you think the original blurb meant that Titan Weapons reduce the quantity of one's foes by a certain percentage, or, that Titan Weapons merely seriously injure them?

I was all set to nitpick just because you said you were a copy editor, and then I checked and saw that this isn't actually incorrect. So did spacial precede spatial, or vice versa?

Edit: The wording on the double negative was chosen deliberately; I didn't want to say it was "correct" because all I could find about "spacial" was that it was an alternative spelling for "spatial", which led me to believe it may have been a common error that led to it being added to the dictionary.

Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.

Originally Posted by Brillig It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.

What really bothers me about the page you link to is that it claims "bitterly" rhymes with "literally".

I'd like to use my lifeline.

*Phone rings . . . Click* Hello?

Hogan! ...

I'm twisted like that.

This was of course after Blue/Red became passe'.

Green/Blue/Black is more fun.

Also had fun with that Cleric Zombie precon they had a while back.

LOL
Hey... in that case, it rhymes with disastrously too!

The Electric-Knight ______ Malfaz _____ Zox'Oculox

@Zethustra

"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan

www.pauldamonthomas.com - Original Music

Forum geek taps one Mountain, one Forest, and two Urza's Mines.



Forum geek destroys target redirect, target thread and target Community Manager.

Blue/black was one of my favorite strategies - empty their hand, empty their library, empty their graveyard. Also known as GOING GOING GONE.

Bah... try a red/white speed deck where nothing taps. Aka INHALE KILL EXHALE.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)

And raise you one