7 SEPTEMBER 1895, Page 16

OVER-EMPHASIS.

[To THE EDITOR OF TES "SPECTATOR."]

STR,—An odd instance of unintentional meiosis or under- emphasis is the common use of the word " decimate." Journalists say of a body of men half of which has been destroyed that " it was absolutely decimated," desiring to use a strong word, but really understating the facts, for decimation is the taking of one in ten. Let people read our old authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries if they want to use strong and powerful epithets and verbs without exaggeration and straining.—I am, Sir, &c., D. M.