I've been taking night school classes to improve my grammar skills and become a better writer. One of the things my teacher pointed out last night were the meanings of the four words, Annihilate, Eradicate, Destroy, and Decimate. You may think they all mean the same thing, but they don't and you shouldn't use them interchangeably.
Annihilate: To destroy completely.
An- is one of the many variations of the prefix Ad-, which means to or toward. Nihil is a suffix, it's Latin for nothing. -Ate is a root that means perform or put into action.
Eradicate: To destroy utterly.
I'm not too sure on the etymology of this word. E- is a variation of the prefix Ex- that means out, or from. I believe Rad- is a suffix, and it is a variation of the Latin word Radix, which means root.
Destroy: To ruin utterly, to make useless.
The prefix De- means down, or away, and -Stroy is a variation of the term Struct, which is also a variation of the Latin term Struere, which means to build.
Decimate: To select by lot and kill one in ten, to destroy or slaughter a large part of.
Decimate comes from the Latin term Decimus, which means tenth. I think this word is interesting. There's a story that goes behind it. The Roman Empire was able to rule so much of Europe because of their strict disciplinary actions. Sometimes there were mutinies in their armies because of how strict they were. Their punishment was decimation, which means they take groups of ten men each and kill one of every ten in that group.
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