So let’s deal first with the
complaint of using the wrong word. According to the Oxford Dictionaries, “most people
have a linguistic pet peeve or two, a useful complaint about language that they
can sound off about to show other people that they know how to wield the
English language. Most of these peeves tend to be rather irrational…a classic
example of this is the word ‘decimate.’ The complaint about the word typically
centers on the fact that decimate is used improperly to refer to ‘destroying a
large portion of something’, when the ‘true’ meaning of the word is ‘to put to
death (or punish) one of every ten’.
"There are several problems with this complaint. The first, and most obvious, is that language has an ineluctable desire to change, and there are almost no words in English which have been around for more than a few hundred years without taking on new meanings, changing their old ones, or coming to simultaneously mean one thing and the opposite (a type of word known as a contronym).”
In fact, in 1606, the word
“decimate” meant to tithe one-tenth, which meaning was far more popular in
English than the meaning to punish every tenth man, which did not appear in
dictionary form (Thomas Blount’s Glossographia)
until 1656. The meaning of “tythe” first appeared in the 16th
century, some seventy years before, in a 1528 book by William Barlow, where he
writes: “To forge excommunications for
tythes and decimacions is their continual exercise.”
In this sense, then, and unfortunately for the etymological purists, the English OxfordWords of the Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford University Press) claims that the word “decimate” comes from the Medieval Latin word “decimatus,” which means “to tithe.” The word was then assigned retrospectively to the Roman practice of punishing every tenth soldier (Ammon Shea, consulting editor for American Dictionaries for Oxford University Press).
The current problem with so-called linguists, is that they fall prey to what is known as the Etymological Fallacy, a tendency to believe that a word’s current meaning should be dictated by its roots. In fact, very few words in English retain but a single meaning, some even ignore or no longer are applicable to their root. An enormous percentage of the items in our vocabulary are capable of “semantic multitasking.”
When a person uses a word such as “tricky,” “person,” “use,” “a,” and even “when,” and “word,” all of which have multiple meanings, we use context to understand the speaker’s intent. So it is with decimate. In addition, many words have changed their meaning from the original root. As an example, about 400 years ago, when “decimate” was used as one-tenth, the word “girl” meant any young person, and a “deer,” meant any kind of wild game. Today, when either “girl” or “deer” are used in a sentence no one wonders what is meant, even though it is far different than from its root.
For those who truly believe that words which started out in English having a single meaning that pertains to ancient Rome should remain that way forever, the following brief list of such will come in handy:
Century: “a subdivision of the Roman legion.”
Forum: “the marketplace or public place of an ancient Roman city forming the center of judicial and public business.”
Tribune: “a Roman official, or elected official, under the
monarchy and the republic with the function of protecting the plebeian citizen
from arbitrary action by the patrician magistrates.”
Missiles: “Gifts thrown to the crowds by Roman emperors.”
Actor: “In Roman law, one that conducts a legal action.”
Legion: “the principal unit of the Roman army comprising 3000.
Today, in the English language, it is totally fine to use “decimate” as a synonym for “devastate,” along with annihilate, ruin, slaughter, demolish, reduce, lay waste, destroy, abolish, eradicate, extinguish, obliterate, liquidate, exterminate, etc. (Merriam-Webster, Words).
The current dictionary definition and meaning of “decimate” is “kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of,” which pretty much define the result of malaria, which, according to the World Health Organization’s November 2018 report, kills one child every two minutes, with 446,000 in 2015 and 445,000 in 2016, with 78% of deaths from malaria being children under the age of 5, which is pretty “decimating.” In fact, malaria is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, and remains one of the top child killers on the planet.
Thus, just two years ago malaria was on the rise, and the death toll was increasing significantly; however, an introduced program of prevention—treating malaria by preventing it—was introduced involving the distribution of mosquito nets, safe insecticidal coating of dwellings (with a two year life), and larviciding, which has reduced recorded malaria cases from between 60% and 90% where applied.
Malaria was known before the time of Pericles, with Hippocrates first noting the principal symptoms. In The Compendium of Susruta, (600 BC) a Sanskrit medical treatise, the symptoms of malarial fever were described and attributed to the bites of certain insects. A number of Roman writers attributed malarial diseases to the swamps. The first treatment of malaria was introduced in the second century BC, the Qinghao plant (Artemisia annua) found in the Mawangdui Tomb, called Wormwood in the U.S. By 340 AD, the antifever properties of Qinghao were first described by Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty, but not actually isolated by Chinese scientists until 1971—today this extract, known as “artemisinins” is very potent and an effective antimalarial drug, especially in combination with other medicines.
Still, quinine, from the bark of the
Cinchona tree, is the most effective
antimalarial drug available today. It was first discovered by the ancient
Peruvians who used it for many, many centuries, stretching back into BC times
long before the Spanish arrived, who then took the drug back to Europe where it
became quite popular. Because of the invention of DDT, malaria was controlled
in 1947 in the U.S., and eradicated by 1951.
As for body temperature (it is well known that a person is considered febrile or pyrexial with an oral temperature exceeding 99.5º (37.5ºC), and a slightly elevated temperature (102º) indicates an infection—above normal but under 100.4º is sometimes considered a low-grade or mild fever, which might indicate that the body is responding to an infection; however, 103º (39.4º C) or higher, is a very serious matter and could become life-threatening, but fevers fighting infections rarely rise over 105º (40.6º C), yet such temperatures can cause seizures, especially in young children. If extended, hyperthermia (failed thermoregulation) could result which is life threatening.
As for treatment other than drugs,
the plasmodium infection of malaria can be treated with cinnamon, which is an
effective with honey and pepper powder. Also, lime and lemon, the Indian herb
Datura (above) is useful in tertian type of malaria. On the other hand, high
body temperature is both a poor diagnostic for determining malaria, and a poor
predictor of malaria parasitaemia; at the same time, malaria causes
perspiration, elevated temperatures, fever and sweats,
The Reader went on to state that “another cure for malaria is to raise the body temperature to just under a hundred and five degrees for about eight full hours, which will kill the disease as malaria is a disease which cause a reoccurring fever of abut 103 degrees about every 90 days. Once you hold it there for a while it kills if off.” However, neither the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the WHO (World Health Organization), or the NIH (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) list raising body temperature in order to either control or cure malaria—in fact, during the fever stage, the body temperatures rise automatically, as high as 107º F., which lasts about four hours.
While the role of a fever in defense against malaria remains unclear, it has been shown that febrile temperatures inhibit the growth of P. falciparum in vitro (cause of severe malaria), yet, at the same time, all disease control experts warn that if drugs are not available or if the parasites are resistant to them, malaria infection can develop to anemia, hypoglycemia or cerebral malaria, in which the capillaries carrying blood to the brain are blocked. Cerebral malaria can cause coma, life-long-learning disabilities, and death.
At the same time, according to one source, raised body temperature can be used to treat the common cold by raising body temperature to 103º, which alerts the body’s natural infection fighting mechanisms, such as the macrophages. However, no doubt, if raising body temperature to cure malaria was such an obvious cure, it would be mentioned all around the malaria circles, however, it is not—not mentioned even once.
"There are several problems with this complaint. The first, and most obvious, is that language has an ineluctable desire to change, and there are almost no words in English which have been around for more than a few hundred years without taking on new meanings, changing their old ones, or coming to simultaneously mean one thing and the opposite (a type of word known as a contronym).”
In this sense, then, and unfortunately for the etymological purists, the English OxfordWords of the Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford University Press) claims that the word “decimate” comes from the Medieval Latin word “decimatus,” which means “to tithe.” The word was then assigned retrospectively to the Roman practice of punishing every tenth soldier (Ammon Shea, consulting editor for American Dictionaries for Oxford University Press).
The current problem with so-called linguists, is that they fall prey to what is known as the Etymological Fallacy, a tendency to believe that a word’s current meaning should be dictated by its roots. In fact, very few words in English retain but a single meaning, some even ignore or no longer are applicable to their root. An enormous percentage of the items in our vocabulary are capable of “semantic multitasking.”
When a person uses a word such as “tricky,” “person,” “use,” “a,” and even “when,” and “word,” all of which have multiple meanings, we use context to understand the speaker’s intent. So it is with decimate. In addition, many words have changed their meaning from the original root. As an example, about 400 years ago, when “decimate” was used as one-tenth, the word “girl” meant any young person, and a “deer,” meant any kind of wild game. Today, when either “girl” or “deer” are used in a sentence no one wonders what is meant, even though it is far different than from its root.
For those who truly believe that words which started out in English having a single meaning that pertains to ancient Rome should remain that way forever, the following brief list of such will come in handy:
Century: “a subdivision of the Roman legion.”
Forum: “the marketplace or public place of an ancient Roman city forming the center of judicial and public business.”
Missiles: “Gifts thrown to the crowds by Roman emperors.”
Actor: “In Roman law, one that conducts a legal action.”
Legion: “the principal unit of the Roman army comprising 3000.
Today, in the English language, it is totally fine to use “decimate” as a synonym for “devastate,” along with annihilate, ruin, slaughter, demolish, reduce, lay waste, destroy, abolish, eradicate, extinguish, obliterate, liquidate, exterminate, etc. (Merriam-Webster, Words).
The current dictionary definition and meaning of “decimate” is “kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of,” which pretty much define the result of malaria, which, according to the World Health Organization’s November 2018 report, kills one child every two minutes, with 446,000 in 2015 and 445,000 in 2016, with 78% of deaths from malaria being children under the age of 5, which is pretty “decimating.” In fact, malaria is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, and remains one of the top child killers on the planet.
Thus, just two years ago malaria was on the rise, and the death toll was increasing significantly; however, an introduced program of prevention—treating malaria by preventing it—was introduced involving the distribution of mosquito nets, safe insecticidal coating of dwellings (with a two year life), and larviciding, which has reduced recorded malaria cases from between 60% and 90% where applied.
Malaria was known before the time of Pericles, with Hippocrates first noting the principal symptoms. In The Compendium of Susruta, (600 BC) a Sanskrit medical treatise, the symptoms of malarial fever were described and attributed to the bites of certain insects. A number of Roman writers attributed malarial diseases to the swamps. The first treatment of malaria was introduced in the second century BC, the Qinghao plant (Artemisia annua) found in the Mawangdui Tomb, called Wormwood in the U.S. By 340 AD, the antifever properties of Qinghao were first described by Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty, but not actually isolated by Chinese scientists until 1971—today this extract, known as “artemisinins” is very potent and an effective antimalarial drug, especially in combination with other medicines.
Harvested bark from the Cinchona officinalis tree indigenous only to
Andean South America
As for body temperature (it is well known that a person is considered febrile or pyrexial with an oral temperature exceeding 99.5º (37.5ºC), and a slightly elevated temperature (102º) indicates an infection—above normal but under 100.4º is sometimes considered a low-grade or mild fever, which might indicate that the body is responding to an infection; however, 103º (39.4º C) or higher, is a very serious matter and could become life-threatening, but fevers fighting infections rarely rise over 105º (40.6º C), yet such temperatures can cause seizures, especially in young children. If extended, hyperthermia (failed thermoregulation) could result which is life threatening.
The Reader went on to state that “another cure for malaria is to raise the body temperature to just under a hundred and five degrees for about eight full hours, which will kill the disease as malaria is a disease which cause a reoccurring fever of abut 103 degrees about every 90 days. Once you hold it there for a while it kills if off.” However, neither the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the WHO (World Health Organization), or the NIH (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) list raising body temperature in order to either control or cure malaria—in fact, during the fever stage, the body temperatures rise automatically, as high as 107º F., which lasts about four hours.
While the role of a fever in defense against malaria remains unclear, it has been shown that febrile temperatures inhibit the growth of P. falciparum in vitro (cause of severe malaria), yet, at the same time, all disease control experts warn that if drugs are not available or if the parasites are resistant to them, malaria infection can develop to anemia, hypoglycemia or cerebral malaria, in which the capillaries carrying blood to the brain are blocked. Cerebral malaria can cause coma, life-long-learning disabilities, and death.
At the same time, according to one source, raised body temperature can be used to treat the common cold by raising body temperature to 103º, which alerts the body’s natural infection fighting mechanisms, such as the macrophages. However, no doubt, if raising body temperature to cure malaria was such an obvious cure, it would be mentioned all around the malaria circles, however, it is not—not mentioned even once.
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