The word 'decimated' is now being used in place of 'devastated' or 'crushed'.
The etymology of the word points to the 1-in-10 killings in mutinous Roman
legions and to 10% taxes.
This blog entry
[http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/09/does-decimate-mean-destroy-one-tenth/]
makes a strong