Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dagss 3423 days ago
How on earth do you define "win"?

How exactly can you "decimate" someone in nuclear capability? The earth can only be destroyed (for purposes of supporting human life) once. US being able to destroy it five times over and China once doesn't really help in real life. It is not like you can trade one US nuke 1:1 to stop one China nuke.
1 comments
Arizhel 3423 days ago
>How exactly can you "decimate" someone in nuclear capability?

That's easy: you destroy 1/10 of their forces.

If you mean anything else by using the term "decimate", you're using it wrong.

link
danharaj 3423 days ago
This is pedantic, pointless and wrong.
link
Arizhel 3423 days ago
Pedantic, perhaps. Wrong? Definitely not. Look it up. "Decimation" was a term invented by the Romans, and was a method of punishing Army units who failed in battle. All the men would line up, and every 10th man would be executed. That's why it's called "decimation": "deci" is Latin for 10.

Modern uses of the word are simply wrong and nonsensical if you understand that "deci" means 10, which should be obvious to any competent English speaker who knows of the word "decimal" and understands our numbering system.

link
AshleyGrant 3423 days ago
The meaning of words changes over time. The meaning of decimate has changed from its original meaning. Sorry you can't handle that fact.

Oh, and that is not to mention that the original meaning of "decimate" was "tithe," not "kill on in ten soldiers."

link
tokenizer 3422 days ago
> Sorry you can't handle that fact.

I like how buddy proves to you he's right, and you have the gall to act like you're right.

Besides, this argument is over pedantics. My original comment stands. China is weak compared to US. No war necessary, restructuring in favour of US WILL TAKE PLACE.

link
Arizhel 3423 days ago
Wrong. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_%28Roman_army%29:

"The word decimation is derived from Latin meaning "removal of a tenth"."

link
bbctol 3423 days ago
Did you look it up before saying "look it up"?
link
Arizhel 3423 days ago
No, but Wikipedia backs me up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_%28Roman_army%29

The only other entries in the disambiguation page are about signal processing and a comic book.

link
danharaj 3423 days ago
Linguistic prescriptivism is pedantic and wrong.
link