If anything, it serves as a reminder of just another way in which a healthy language can continue to grow and add new meanings. internecine: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed. • internecine • Pronunciation: in-têr-ne-seen • Hear it! Since it takes at least two to fight, we immediately have the usual "inter" prefix significance. an internecine feud among proxy holders. Biden's favorite word? Internecine strife in Gaza claimed its most senior victim yesterday. 3. More the later, sad to say, lately was true: with the growing internecine conflict between the pair and self-destructive behavior evidencing itself presently. Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. of or relating to conflict or struggle within a group: an internecine feud among proxy holders. fracking One of the ways we decide to add a new definition for a word is when enough people use it in a specific sense with a specific meaning. This is why there is the definition of literally that proves so vexatious (“in effect; virtually”); many people have used the word in this manner for a very long time, and so we follow our mandate of keeping track of the language as it is used. Dictionary entry overview: What does internecine mean? 1660s, "deadly, destructive," from Latin internecinus "very deadly, murderous, destructive," from internecare "kill or destroy," from inter (see inter-) + necare "kill" (from PIE root *nek- (1) "death"). Johnson read the inter- as meaning "between," leading to its current usage, even though … what internecine wars were stirred up against the Hussites in Bohemia?— James Cranford, The teares of Ireland, 1642, …yet they commend revenge, and applaud that internecine hatred which concludes in nothing but blood, and therefore represent their greatest Heroes, such as Achilles and Aeneas and 2. All Free. internecine (adj.) Become a WordReference Supporter to view the site ad-free. All the latest wordy news, linguistic insights, offers and competitions every month. It will be interesting to see how the show tries to raise the stakes of an, During the year of my engagement — 1869 — while I was out on the lecture platform, the daily letter that came for me generally brought me news from the front — by which expression I refer to the, https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=internecine&oldid=60829108, Requests for review of Japanese translations, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. etymology . How to use a word that (literally) drives some pe... Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? Johnson’s mistaken definition for internecine does not appear to have caused any lasting damage to our language. Internecine definition: An internecine conflict, war, or quarrel is one which takes place between opposing groups... | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples . According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Johnson misinterpreted inter to mean "mutual," when in this case the prefix was an intensifier; hence, the term should have been defined as "very destructive" not "mutually destructive." Define internecine. Marked by mutual slaughter or destruction. Help WordReference: Ask in the forums yourself. Context example: internecine war. (of conflict) within a group or organization, 2. characterized by bloodshed and carnage for both sides. Notes: Today's word exemplifies the … Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Having survived “The Long Night,” Daenerys will now be turning her attention back to the problem that originally vexed her: Cersei Lannister. We do not enter this sense because we love the sound of gnashing teeth. Please note that these are draft questions for the board game MooT. This page was last edited on 12 April 2016, at 19:34. Internecine definition: An internecine conflict, war, or quarrel is one which takes place between opposing groups... | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples Double-click any word on the page to look it up in the dictionary. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Internecine now refers to conflict within a group. adj. Relax, as it was not from us; it was introduced by the great lexicographer Samuel Johnson, in his 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language. A war between factions or regions of the same country. This page was last edited on 11 October 2020, at 16:25. 83.83.1.229 11:56, 20 August 2014 (UTC), Well, you're right..but still... 83.83.1.229 13:40, 26 August 2014 (UTC), Internecine comes from the Latin internecinus ("fought to the death" or "destructive"), which traces to the verb "necare" ("to kill") and the prefix inter-. Check out words from the year you were born and more! Do you know what languages these words come from? mutually destructive or ruinous; maiming both or all sides, of or relating to slaughter or carnage; bloody, of or involving conflict within a group or organization, International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, ⓘ One or more forum threads is an exact match of your searched term. It didn’t take long for other lexicographers to add this new sense of the word. Answer: internecine The word internecine (1663) derives from the Latin internecinus, very deadly or destructive, which in turn derives from internecare, kill or destroy. Borrowed from Late Latin internecīnus (“deadly”), from inter (“between”) and necō (“to kill”). Pronunciation of internecine and it's etymology. Both candidates will continue fracking, coyote (We do, but that's beside the point.) One could argue very well that before Genghis Khan, there was no Mongol people, only Mongol-speaking (as far as that goes) tribes. Here Be Dragons: A Creature Identification Quiz. Internecine now refers to conflict within a group. Similar: bloody (having or covered with or accompanied by blood) Get unrestricted access to all the English-Learning Units! internecine (not comparable) Mutually destructive; most often applied to warfare. Meaning of internecine with illustrations and photos. ("Inter-" usually means "between" or "mutual" in Latin, but it can also indicate the completion of an action.) 'All Intensive Purposes' or 'All Intents and Purposes'? Presidential debate about migration. Considered by OED as misinterpreted in Johnson's Dictionary [1755], which defined it as "endeavouring mutual destruction," but a notion of "mutually destructive" has been imported into the word in English because in English inter- usually conveys the idea of "mutual." internecine (adj.) Meaning: Characterized by bloodshed and carnage for both sides. Alexander, as desiring only to live till they might throughly revenge the fair deaths of their friends….— Luke Milbourne, Mysteries in religion vindicated, 1692, The latter portion of this word comes from the Latin necare (“to kill”), which is itself from nex (“violent death”). Every etymology of "internecine" mentions that the original Latin definition of both "internecinus" and "internecivus" was "FOUGHT to the death, murderous". Origin: 1663, from L. internecinus "very deadly, murderous, destructive," from internecare "kill or destroy," from inter (inter-) + necare "kill", from nec-, nex violent death. Set your young readers up for lifelong success, Study Up With Our Official SCRABBLE Dictionary, 11 Words Used to Great Effect by Edgar Allan Poe. • INTERNECINE (adjective) internecine - WordReference English dictionary, questions, discussion and forums. Origin: 1663, from L. internecinus "very deadly, murderous, destructive," from internecare "kill or destroy," from inter (inter-) + necare "kill", from nec-, nex violent death. Click here to add the AudioEnglish.org dictionary. Lexicographers are often asked questions when we meet with members of the general public. Inter- has a number of possible meanings, most of which are closely related (such as ”between,” “reciprocal,” “shared by,” and “within”), and which would match Johnson’s definition. However, in Latin the root could also denote the completion of an action, which is how it was used in internecare, the Latin predecessor of internecine. John Ash included it in his 1775 The new and complete dictionary of the English language; Noah Webster omitted it in the 1828 edition of his dictionary, but it was included in the 1864 edition. The most commonly used sense of internecine found today (“of, relating to, or involving conflict within a group”) was introduced into our language through the mistake of a dictionary maker. AudioEnglish Definitions... Just One Click Away! If you spot an error or disagree with anything I've said here, internecine synonyms, internecine pronunciation, internecine translation, English dictionary definition of internecine. ) However, this definition was first added to a dictionary via a mistaken assessment of its etymology by Samuel Johnson. Johnson's definition was carried into later dictionaries, and before long his sense was the dominant meaning of the word. Regarding the example of 'Mongol people', I'd say this is on historically shaky ground. (of conflict) within a group or organization, characterized by bloodshed and carnage for both sides. Characterized by struggle within a group, usually applied to an ethnic or familial relationship. Questions such as ‘What is it like to have the third most glamorous job in Massachusetts?’ ‘What is a lexicographer?’ and ‘How do you decide when to put a new meaning of a word in the dictionary?’ The answers to the first two questions are, as you might expect, closely guarded trade secrets, but we are happy to provide an answer, of sorts, for the last. Definition of internecine in the Fine Dictionary. Of or relating to struggle within a nation, organization, or group. Mutually destructive; ruinous or fatal to both sides. internecine: Of or relating to struggle within a nation, organization, or group. Internecine comes from the Latin internecinus ("fought to the death" or "destructive"), which traces to the verb "necare" ("to kill") and the prefix inter-. Merriam-Webster: Internecine comes from the Latin internecinus ("fought to the death" or "destructive"), which traces to the verb "necare" ("to kill") and the prefix inter-. 'Nip it in the butt' or 'Nip it in the bud'? Related to a struggle between entities in an organization, such as a nation or business. --Espoo (talk) 19:34, 12 April 2016 (UTC), Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:internecine&oldid=37997392, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers:: WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2020. of or relating to conflict or struggle within a group: having or resulting in great destruction or slaughter: WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2020. of or pertaining to conflict or struggle within a group: characterized by great slaughter; deadly. How could one speak of internecine then? Forum discussions with the word(s) "internecine" in the title: In other languages: Spanish | French | Italian | Portuguese | Romanian | German | Dutch | Swedish | Russian | Polish | Czech | Greek | Turkish | Chinese | Japanese | Korean | Arabic. The Latin prefix is said to have had here only an intensive sense; "the Latin word meant merely of or to extermination ... without implying that of both parties" [Fowler]. One possibility is that when Johnson came across internecine he assumed that the inter- prefix meant “between” or “mutual,” and so reasoned, reasonably enough, that putting the two together would yield a word meaning, as he phrased it, “endeavouring mutual destruction.”.

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