Ah, yet another writer who doesn't know the meaning of "Decimate!"
By
afocks,
Posted on: 2011-12-07 17:49 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I remember reading, in latin class, an account of the process from an observer.
The legion was assemble as a whole.
The order was read and every 10th man was selected, rank did not matter.
IIRC there were several persons doing the counting and they started randomly in the ranks.
The 10th was pulled out of their rank/file and when all accounted for, they were slain at the same time in front of the assemble legion.
Wish I could remember where I heard this lovely tale:
A language professor at a prominent university was explaining to the students about double-negatives. In many languages a double-negative is a positive. There are some languages (I forget which) where a double-negative is still a negative. Likewise, a positive-negative is usually a negative.
"But," he concludes, "no language on Earth has any example where a double-positive is a negative."
And a voice in the room pipes up:
"Yeah, right."
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise 
; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
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Haha, it is silly... but that is a great punchline! |
Originally Posted by Shadowe
Wish I could remember where I heard this lovely tale:
A language professor at a prominent university was explaining to the students about double-negatives. In many languages a double-negative is a positive. There are some languages (I forget which) where a double-negative is still a negative. Likewise, a positive-negative is usually a negative. "But," he concludes, "no language on Earth has any example where a double-positive is a negative." And a voice in the room pipes up: "Yeah, right." |
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
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It does have a 5% chance of missing.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
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?
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[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
I had a blue/artifact deck that I could deck someone with round 2, within reason. I don't think I could chew through more than 100 cards, but I could always try. 60 was trivial on round 3.
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Hew in drag baby
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There are three pronunciations listed, and I assume the rhyme was with ˈli-tər-lē\.|
Originally Posted by NekoNeko
What really bothers me about the page you link to is that it claims "bitterly" rhymes with "literally".
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Of course, I want to go to wherever they speak that dialect and start punching people in the head, but for them, it does seem to rhyme. But, then, people who pronounce "pen" and "pin" the same piss me off, so you can understand how I feel about them leaving out a ******* vowel.
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With or without an Academy?|
Originally Posted by OneFrigidWitch
I had a blue/artifact deck that I could deck someone with round 2, within reason. I don't think I could chew through more than 100 cards, but I could always try. 60 was trivial on round 3.
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Because if it's an Academy deck, turn 2 is slow.
And Zwill and Freitag should totally get Possess in Dark Control renamed to Word of Command if they're going to be posting card images and talking about preferring mono-black decks.
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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What have the Romans ever done for us?
Thelonious Monk
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Gave us a novel method of dating films. Civilisation would fall apart without that.
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Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
What have the Romans ever done for us?
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Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
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Its all about the aquaducts! ...and possibly some forms of pizza.
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Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
What have the Romans ever done for us?
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pressure/
grace
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Gelato.
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Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
What have the Romans ever done for us?
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...and sanitation.
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Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
What have the Romans ever done for us?
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Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
There's actually a term for this; it's called the "drift of the signifieds," where a symbol, word or phrase stays the same but the associated action or thing changes. Look at how the accepted primary meaning of the word "gay" has changed since about 1950.
I used to fiddle with my back feet music for a black onyx. My entire room absorbed every echo. The music was . . . thud like. The music was . . . thud like. I usually played such things as rough-neck and thug. Opaque melodies that would bug most people. Music from the other side of the fence.
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I'm more of a City of Heroes man myself.
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Originally Posted by Freitag
I prefer mono-black, personally...
~Freitag |
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In other words, you prefer cyan-orange-magenta-green-silver-purple-pink-yellow-black. With sparkles.
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Originally Posted by Xanatos
I'm more of a City of Heroes man myself.
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In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
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No. |
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
In other words, you prefer cyan-orange-magenta-green-silver-purple-pink-yellow-black. With sparkles.
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No sparkles. Ever again.
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
...and sanitation.
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I wonder if "Hexadecimator" will ever be available again on Virtue. 
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Coward! Now we'll need to *arrest* every tenth forum poster.
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Originally Posted by Calibre
WTH? I have to mate with every 10th man?!?!? I'm not that kinda guy...
hmmm But. then again, they /ARE/ Romans, right? hmmm  Cal |
We don' need no stinkin' signatures!
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Orgies
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Originally Posted by all_hell
All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
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Shadowy Presence - Absolutely, positively worse than playing a Kheldian... --Myrmydon
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Originally Posted by Primary_Unit
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. |
Great post.
I'll add that there a few words/definitions I think we can predict becoming acceptable in formal writing within the next 100 years, simply due to force of will. Two I would place bets on are singular "their" as an acceptable synonym for "his or her," and "alot" becoming as acceptable as "another" already is. I would also bet on "hopefully" as a synonym for "I hope" if that horse weren't already pretty much past the finish line.
Meanwhile the word "scan" appears on track to lose its original meaning entirely, at least when applied to humans. From the 16th century, this word very specifically meant to read something very closely. Now it usually means the opposite: to glance over quickly. The OED says the first use of "scan" in this way didn't happen until 1926, so the change has happened over a period of less than 90 years.
The fate of the word "awesome" hangs in the balance as well. If you were born before the 60s, you might remember when "awesome" was used mainly to refer to happenings on the scale of awe-inspiring acts of divine intervention. In just 30 years this word has picked up a primary popular meaning of simply "impressive, good." While most readers still understand what it means to "fall down before the awesome power of god," there is a possibility that in a not very distant future people will find it comical.
None of these words are there quite yet, but I expect there to be many battles about them to come, and split opinions about their use as they continue to gain traction in the day to day language of the unwashed masses.
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Iirc, this already has hundreds of years behind it.|
Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
Two I would place bets on are singular "their" as an acceptable synonym for "his or her,"...
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Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
Meanwhile the word "scan" appears on track to lose its original meaning entirely, at least when applied to humans. From the 16th century, this word very specifically meant to read something very closely. Now it usually means the opposite: to glance over quickly. The OED says the first use of "scan" in this way didn't happen until 1926, so the change has happened over a period of less than 90 years.
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Depends, are you posting from the 1400s?
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Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
I'll add that there a few words/definitions I think we can predict becoming acceptable in formal writing within the next 100 years, simply due to force of will. Two I would place bets on are singular "their" as an acceptable synonym for "his or her,"
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De minimis non curat Lex Luthor.
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It does. However there are still huge debates about whether singular "their" is acceptable in modern formal writing. The general consensus is currently to avoid it, not so much because it's horribly wrong but to avoid the red pens of ivory tower grammarians. As of 2011, I would never write it intentionally in a business proposal.|
Originally Posted by all_hell
Iirc, this already has hundreds of years behind it.
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| Hasn't the same thing, more or less, happened to "peruse"? |
Yep.
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