Lars Eighner's Homepage Writers' Workshop Glossary: D

D

`de·i,mate /'dEs@,meIt/ verb [disputed]

To decimate means, strictly speaking, to reduce by one-tenth. If an occupying power orders the civilian population of a village decimated, then every tenth person will be shot. Likewise, a military unit that has been decimated retains 90% of its personnel, and if it is decimated twice, then 81% remains. This sense is inherent in the etymology of the word, which is from Latin decimus meaning "tenth." In recent times, however, decimate has come to be used in the sense of largely or almost completely destroyed. As this new sense seems founded on ignorance, critics strongly disapprove of the new sense.

,de·di`ca·tion /,dEd@'keIS@n/ noun

(MS & book)

1 : (MS) Page in a manuscript in which the author dedicates the work to a person, persons, institution, or abstraction. Although in the past dedications were often elaborate and designed to flatter a patron, the modern style is to make the dedication as brief and simple as possible.
2 : (book) This page in a finished book.

desert / dessert noun [mistaken]

Confusion of these words is almost always nothing more than a spelling error. An arid place is a desert and a (usually) sweet course served at the end or near the end of a meal is a dessert. Desert is also the word for what one deserves, but this word seldom occurs except in the cliché "just deserts" which is best avoided.

discreet / discrete adjective [mistaken]

Only the spellings of these words are commonly confused. Discreet is the word for a person who is tactful and able to keep a secret. Discrete means noncontinuous and is most often wanted in mathematical contexts. (mnemonic) : In the word which means noncontinuous, the e's are noncontinuous because they are separated by the t.

[disputed] [local]

As used here: The label [disputed], occurs mostly with usage entries, and indicates some difference of opinion about the correct usage exists or has existed. Often there is little merit to one side of the dispute or the other. Sometimes careless writers have obscured distinctions that were once clear. Very often instructors and language mavens have tried to improve the language by introducing rules which had no basis in the history of the language and which have not entirely caught on except with the students and disciples of the mavens who now consider themselves very well educated and superior for having learned the ersatz rules. The marking [disputed] is meant merely to indicate controversy, not to take a position on the merits of the cases. In some cases this label is used for dialect differences when no controversy exists about which usage is correct in which dialect, but indicates the claims that one dialect is somehow purer or more correct than the other are dubious.

`drop `fo·li,o /'drAp 'foUli,oU/ noun

(printing) A page that bears its number at the bottom rather than at the top of the page. The First page of a chapter in a finished book may be a drop folio. Manuscripts should never use drop folios. Compare: blind folio