Your beloved, iconic firefighting bear has been skunked.
Language mavens say that a word or a term is "skunked" when the common folk — everyday speakers and writers — wrest it away from the purists and, by dint of repetition, turn what was once considered an error into standard usage.
"Decimate," for example, once meant killing or destroying a tenth of something, such as an opponent's army. But the rabble so often used it to mean "utterly obliterate" that the definition changed and the "correct" usage is now considered archaic.
"Hopefully," for another example, once meant "in a hopeful manner." And those who used it instead of "one hopes ..." to begin sentences expressing their desires were considered ignorant. No longer.
Language is a living thing, and no amount of scolding or rhetorical knuckle-rapping can prevent its evolution.
I like the info about "decimate" more. I thought it was the Roman punishment of killing every tenth soldier but that now appears to be in doubt.
And the tithe/decimate connection. Also like the idea that people are mistakingly replacing devastate with decimate.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
I thought it was executing every tenth civilian. For no particular reason a piece of detritus stuck in my mind is that it was used in a Matt Helm book re: a boss who was a stickler for language. It was written in the 60's or maybe 70's.
Ah yes, take (for another example) the word "gay"......back in the day (50's) the word would
have meant "happy", joyous, merry.....I Still chuckle at the cartoon I saw in Playboy back in
the early 60's......it was a Christmas edition and a man was sitting on a ottman by the blazing
fire, he was donning a pair of nylons and garter belt....the caption...."Don, we now, our gay
apparel"..........
