Where does “terrorist” come from?
Terrorist comes from French terroriste, formed from French terror plus the suffix -iste, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ter- meaning to frighten or tremble.
terrorist (English): A person, group, or organization that uses...
Definitions
- A person, group, or organization that uses...
Ancestry of “terrorist”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Terror | The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution |
| 2 | Middle English | terrour | A terror; a fright |
| 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 | — |