[time-nuts] Misuse of word "decimate" (was Re: Short term 10MHz source)

[Gerhard Hoffmann]

Am 10.01.19 um 17:33 schrieb Bob Martin:
>
>
> Back in those same seventies, I was working for an army lab (Harry
> Diamond Labs) as a summer student. I saw a picture in a lab supply 
> catalog of a (ein) stein of beer. I tore it out and taped it over a 
> picture off Albert Einstein that a German physicist, Howard Brandt, 
> had on the wall over his desk.  This was a bad idea. Howard was so 
> incensed that he called the whole department together, hauled out the 
> Websters Unabridged Dictionary, and forced me to read the definition 
> of the word philistine in front of the group. Fortunately, there were 
> many entries under the word and I chose "a native of Philistia" to 
> read out loud. The moral is words can have many meanings and, more 
> importantly, don't make fun of Einstein
> around German Physicists.
>
I wonder if Howard even understood the intended pun.


Stein means stone, nothing else. I have seen/heard it used in the

sense of a "mug for beer" only by Americans. The closest

German word would be Steinkrug, but only if you want to

emphasize that the Krug is made of ceramics and not of glass.


Decimation apart of the Roman sense for me is  only throwing away samples,

and the need for filtering goes with it even without explicitly saying.


Cheers, Gerhard