Decimate!
I recently watched the three-part finale of the current Doctor Who series; I'll remain spoiler-free, but it was for the most part a really fantastic end to a really fantastic third series, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming fourth series (though not the long wait).
One of my favorite moments in the finale involved some cheerfully malevolent word-play pondering the precise definition of "decimate" -- riffing a bit on the fact that there is one version of the word that means roughly "to cause massive amounts of totally awesome destruction" and another version of the word that means "to destroy 1/10". It's a deliberate manipulation of the interplay between creative, expressive uses of language and precise, literally descriptive uses of language.
Apparently Ryan North over at qwantz.com has been pondering the same thing.
One of my favorite moments in the finale involved some cheerfully malevolent word-play pondering the precise definition of "decimate" -- riffing a bit on the fact that there is one version of the word that means roughly "to cause massive amounts of totally awesome destruction" and another version of the word that means "to destroy 1/10". It's a deliberate manipulation of the interplay between creative, expressive uses of language and precise, literally descriptive uses of language.
Apparently Ryan North over at qwantz.com has been pondering the same thing.
posted by Wendell Kimper at 7:04 AM
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