Etymology

violence

vio·lence
V4I1O1L1E1N1C3E1

Today it means: Extreme force. Full definition →

Middle English violence ← Old French violence ← Latin violentia
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latinviolēns /violentus
  2. Latinviolentia
  3. Old Frenchviolence
  4. Middle Englishviolence
  5. English todayviolence

Inherited from Middle English violence, borrowed from Old French violence, a learned borrowing from Latin violentia, from violēns /violentus (“violent”) + -ia. See violent. Displaced native Old English stræc.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.