terrorism

What it means

1. historicaluncountableusuallyThe system of fear and intimidation put into place during the Reign of Terror in Revolutionary France around 1793-94.

   1 more example

   In England I was proscribed for having vindicated the French Revolution, and I have suffered a rigorous imprisonment in France for having pursued a similar mode of conduct. During the reign of terrorism, I was a close prisoner for eight long months, and remained so above three months after the era of the tenth Thermidor.

   1795 July 7, Thomas Paine, The Constitution Of 1795 (Speech in the French National Convention)

2. uncountableusuallyThe use of unlawful violence against people or property to achieve political objectives.

   1 more example

   The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty. David Cameron insists that his latest communications data bill is "vital to counter terrorism". Yet terror is mayhem. It is no threat to freedom. That threat is from counter-terror, from ministers capitulating to securocrats.

   2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 23

   1. broadlyuncountableusuallyThe use of intimidation or bullying tactics.

      We at the GCN Prisoner Project often get letters from prisoners who are being harassed (above and beyond the usual terrorism of the prison business) because of their being queer.

      1984 February 11, “GCN Gay And Lesbian Prisoner Project”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 29, page 2

In a sentence

In England I was proscribed for having vindicated the French Revolution, and I have suffered a rigorous imprisonment in France for having pursued a similar mode of conduct. During the reign of terrorism, I was a close prisoner for eight long months, and remained so above three months after the era of the tenth Thermidor.

1795 July 7, Thomas Paine, The Constitution Of 1795 (Speech in the French National Convention)

Where it comes from

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. Englishterrorism

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.