Where does “terrorism” come from?
Terrorism comes from French terrorisme, formed from Latin terror meaning "fright" (from Proto-Indo-European ter- "to frighten") plus the suffix -isme from Ancient Greek -ισμός.
terrorism (English): The deliberate commission of an act of violence...
Definitions
- The deliberate commission of an act of violence...
Ancestry of “terrorism”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | terrorisme | terrorism |
| 2 | French | terreur | terror; terrorcore |
| 3 | Middle French | terreur | terror |
| 4 | Old French | terreur | terror |
| 5 | Latin | terror | a dread, terror, great fear, alarm, panic; an... |
| 6 | Latin | faciō | to do |
| 7 | Latin | -torium | nominative neuter singular of -tōrius; accusative... |
| 8 | Latin | -tōrius | ory |
| 9 | Latin | -tor | -er |
| 10 | Proto-Italic | -tōr | Forms agent nouns to verb stems |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | -tōr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | -tor-s | — |