T-Rex: I saw the coolest fight on TV last night! It was between two shiny anthropomorphic robots. One had a metal cowboy hat.

T-Rex: Cowboy hat dude got DECIMATED!

Dromiceiomimus: Really? Cowboy hat robot was 10% destroyed?
T-Rex: What? No, he was in pieces. His hand even landed in a spectator's lap and it was still grabby!
Dromiceiomimus: It's just - I think I'm beginning to be in the minority here, but "decimated" means "destroy one tenth". It comes from the Roman army, who'd kill 1/10th of a cohort as an extreme form of punishment. Precision in language is a virtue!

Utahraptor: Yeah, I'm with Dromiceiomimus on this one! "Deci" is right there in the word, dude.
T-Rex: That's true.

T-Rex: I guess my dilemma is I love that we have a word for "1/10th destroyed", but I also love how awesome "decimated" sounds, but ALSO, I'm not sure how I feel about prescriptivism when I'm the victim.
Utahraptor: Um - a dilemma is for two choices: you had a trilemma there. Precision!

God: IF YOU MESS UP AGAIN PEOPLE WON'T THINK YOU'RE GOOD AT TALKING ANYMORE
T-Rex: I know I know!!