And whoever added "S" to the word "toward" is forever on my list. There is no such word as "Towards", despite what Tyra Banks continues to repeat to contestants still in the running TOWARD becoming America's Next Top Model.

I haven't looked it up, but the story of the evil Roman army killing one in ten of their own soldiers sounds a lot like a false etymology (possibly even perpetuated in later antiquity). We don't actually know very much at all about Romans from the 5th century BC... they had no empire at that point... certainly not enough of an army to sacrifice one in ten of them!
The story smacks of later mythologized slander.

- the stereotype for the rest of the world is that American mass culture and the American psyche are incapable of understanding irony, so it is hardly surprising that American usage has completely undermined the very of the word itself. For instance, even barely-literate British speakers rarely use “irony” in the sense of “coincidence”. (Related issue, British English has blurred the distinction between “irony” and “sarcasm”, but the stereotypical American has even less knowledge of sarcasm so the debate is largely meanininless on your side of the Atlantic.)"

I found it funny that you made these two points, because I was just about to suggest that "I could care less" is a sarcastic (and probably juvenile) version of "I couldn't care less". Please don't waste too much time staring at this comment in incomprehension.

My own hang-up is people who misuse the word "less", as in "less people came to the picnic this year than last year", when it should be properly phrased, "fewer people came to the picnic this year than last year."

Actually, I'd say they were using "should of" instead of "should've." That, I believe, is where their confusion lies.

Incidentally, there's a nice trick I like to use to demonstrate how wrong "could care less" is. Have the user stick the word "possibly" in there and they'll almost always realize why it makes no sense, unless they say "couldn't."

but the misuse that always amuses me is using "nauseous" for "nauseated"

nauseous means something is so disgusting that it make you sick - e.g., "Grampa's toenails are nauseous"

nauseated means to feel queasy- e.g., I saw Grampa's toenails, now I'm nauseated.

whenever someone tells me they are nauseous, I generally try not to giggle.

I use "decimate" to mean "losses of about 10%, or somewhat more" (so, if 700 troops went into battle and 83 died, they were decimated. If my stock portfolio lost 14% of it's value, it was decimated). But some people take decimated to mean "totally destroyed", when they could be using the perfectly good word "annihilated".

Didn't know about "spit and image"... I like drawling "spirit and image" as the explanation, though.

I think 'in'flamable is similar to 'in'cantation, or also possibly 'en'able . IE it refers to an inherrent property of the nouny thing.

I'm guessing here. I didn't take Latin at school, I just know it's a tricky beast.