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Dead soldiers' teeth reveal diseases that doomed Napoleon's army

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Dead soldiers' teeth reveal diseases that doomed Napoleon's army

#4
"one that would see his army decimated by cold, hunger and disease."

2 things: A)decimated means 1 in 10, not 9 in 10. B) according to the wiki article, Napoleon had already lost 75% of his initial fighting force by the time he got to Moscow, before the withdrawal.

I am not sure an article on biology should include much history--I would certainly hope it did a better job on the biology...

Re: Dead soldiers' teeth reveal diseases that doomed Napoleon's army

#5

"one that would see his army decimated by cold, hunger and disease." 2 things: A)decimated means 1 in 10, not 9 in 10. B) according to the wiki article, Napoleon had already lost 75% of his initial fighting force by the time he got to Moscow, before the withdrawal. I am not sure an article on biology should include much history--I would certainly hope it did a better job on the biology...

From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decimate

Decimate is a word that often raises hackles, at least those belonging to a small but committed group of logophiles who feel that it is commonly misused. The issue that they have with the decline and fall of the word decimate is that once upon a time in ancient Rome it had a very singular meaning: “to select by lot and kill every tenth man of a military unit.” However, many words in English descended from Latin have changed and/or expanded their meanings in their travels. For example, we no longer think of sinister as meaning “on the left side,” and delicious can describe things both tasty and delightful. Was the “to kill every tenth man” meaning the original use of decimate in English? Yes, but not by much. It took only a few decades for decimate to acquire its broader, familiar meaning of “to severely damage or destroy,” which has been employed steadily since the 17th century.

Re: Dead soldiers' teeth reveal diseases that doomed Napoleon's army

#6

"one that would see his army decimated by cold, hunger and disease." 2 things: A)decimated means 1 in 10, not 9 in 10. B) according to the wiki article, Napoleon had already lost 75% of his initial fighting force by the time he got to Moscow, before the withdrawal. I am not sure an article on biology should include much history--I would certainly hope it did a better job on the biology...

Look in any dictionary and you'll find that that decimate means to devastate aswell.

Language is what people speak not what people proscribe in books or the internet.

Re: Dead soldiers' teeth reveal diseases that doomed Napoleon's army

#8
post #5

"one that would see his army decimated by cold, hunger and disease." 2 things: A)decimated means 1 in 10, not 9 in 10. B) according to the wiki article, Napoleon had already lost 75% of his initial fighting force by the time he got to Moscow, before the withdrawal. I am not sure an article on biology should include much history--I would certainly hope it did a better job on the biology...

From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decimate Decimate is a word that often raises hackles, at least those belonging to a small but committed group of logophiles who feel that it is commonly misused. The issue that they have with the decline and fall of the word decimate is that once upon a time in ancient Rome it had a very singular meaning: “to select by lot and kill every tenth man of a military unit.”…

The more language is allowed to drift, the harder it becomes to read old language. I think this is a particularly silly case, but in general, the complaint that people are misusing words shouldn't be met with "It's impossible to misuse words", which this argument implicitly is.

Re: Dead soldiers' teeth reveal diseases that doomed Napoleon's army

#9

Check out the perfect set of teeth on the skull of the soldier shown in the article. Amazing how human dental health has changed since then.

We’re talking about a foot soldier on Napoleon’s army, easy to keep a good set considering he could be 18-25.

Re: Dead soldiers' teeth reveal diseases that doomed Napoleon's army

#10

"one that would see his army decimated by cold, hunger and disease." 2 things: A)decimated means 1 in 10, not 9 in 10. B) according to the wiki article, Napoleon had already lost 75% of his initial fighting force by the time he got to Moscow, before the withdrawal. I am not sure an article on biology should include much history--I would certainly hope it did a better job on the biology...

You are figuratively killing me with your literalism.
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