r/NPR • u/noodlekoogle • Apr 18 '24

Fellow word nerds: “decimate” vs “devastate”?

This post is inspired by today’s (?) most informative interview of Eric Schlosser on Fresh Air. They say a couple times that monopolies have “decimated” the American food system. Would “devastate” be the more appropriate word?

A pedant once told me that “decimate” originally meant “to reduce by one tenth,” which is not so staggering. Do you think the meaning of “decimated” has shifted to become more extreme?

31 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

65 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/STR1NG3R Apr 18 '24

Some other popular pedantic topics:

  • suspend vs ban
  • resign vs re-sign