That one doesn't bother me at all, because the "devastate" definition has been around for centuries - for the majority of the time that the word has existed in English, in fact. IIt was used to mean "reduce by one tenth" around the same time that nice was an insult meaning "foolish" or "fussy."
The idea that it only meant "reduce by one tenth" until recently is actually kind of a reconstruction; you hear the first complaints about more general definition after the civil war, at least several decades late. And students these days have to be taught that the more general definition is "wrong."
For me the "devastate" meaning is still pretty natural; that kind of training never really internalized, at least not for that word... so, I don't feel like he language is being changed out from under me.
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Date: 2017-06-22 02:26 pm (UTC)The idea that it only meant "reduce by one tenth" until recently is actually kind of a reconstruction; you hear the first complaints about more general definition after the civil war, at least several decades late. And students these days have to be taught that the more general definition is "wrong."
For me the "devastate" meaning is still pretty natural; that kind of training never really internalized, at least not for that word... so, I don't feel like he language is being changed out from under me.