Etymology

terrorism

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Today it means: The system of fear and intimidation put into place during the Reign of Terror in Revolutionary France around 1793-94. Full definition →

French terrorisme ← Middle French terreur ← Old French terreur
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*tres-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*troséyeti
  3. Proto-Italic*troseō
  4. Latinterreō
  5. Latinterror
  6. Old Frenchterreur
  7. Middle Frenchterreur
  8. Frenchterreur
  9. Frenchterrorisme
  10. English todayterrorism

From French terrorisme, from terreur + -isme. By surface analysis, terror + -ism. The word first appears in English in 1795 in reference to the Jacobin radicals of France, who ruled during the Reign of Terror.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.