Sir, – Charles Daly (October 14th) objects to references to the likely electoral "decimation" of the Labour Party on the grounds that "More appropriate terms would be 'meltdown' or 'near-extinction'", because decimation refers to a Roman military punishment by which every tenth man in a unit was executed.
But according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word decimation was first used in English in 1460, when it meant: "The exaction or payment of a tithe, or of any tax of one tenth". (Surely not something Labour TDs would welcome either). Its first use in English to refer to the nasty Roman military punishment is documented later, in 1579. But not long after that (1613), it was being used to mean "widespread destruction; devastation", which is precisely what people mean when predicting Labour's performance at the upcoming election. So go on predicting decimation if you feel that way inclined! – Yours, etc,
KEVIN McCAFFERTY,
Rådal,
Norway.
Sir, – Dr John Doherty (October 15th) states that the Earl of Essex decimated or executed one in 10 of his men in Wicklow. Wherever he read it or whoever told him, that simply never happened. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN AHERNE,
Loughrea, Co Galway.
Sir, – Charles Daly (October 14th) complains that the word "decimation" refers to a punishment in the Roman army whereby one tenth of the soldiers were randomly selected to be beaten to death by their comrades. The word Mr Daly is thinking of is decimatio, a Latin term which did in fact refer to this action back when Latin, an Italic language, was spoken. In the early 21st century, English, a Germanic language spoken by Mr Daly and myself, includes the word "decimation", which is certainly derived from decimatio but is also distinct from it, which has the more general meaning of major devastation or annihilation.
Words change their meanings over time, and especially when they cross languages. – Yours, etc,
CHRIS McCROHAN,
Limerick.