1795, in specific sense of "government intimidation during the Reign of Terror in France" (March 1793-July 1794), from French terrorisme, from Latin terror (see terror).
If the basis of a popular government in peacetime is virtue, its basis in a time of revolution is virtue and terror -- virtue, without which terror would be barbaric; and terror, without which virtue would be impotent. [Robespierre, speech in French National Convention, 1794]
General sense of "systematic use of terror as a policy" is first recorded in English 1798 (in reference to the Irish Rebellion of that year). At one time, a word for a certain kind of mass-destruction terrorism was dynamitism (1883); and during World War I frightfulness (translating German Schrecklichkeit) was used in Britain for "deliberate policy of terrorizing enemy non-combatants."
实用例句
1. We have to make the states that sponsor terrorism pay a price.
我们必须让那些支持恐怖主义的国家付出代价。来自柯林斯例句
2. The spiral of terrorism becomes never-ending.
恐怖主义活动没完没了，不断升级。来自柯林斯例句
3. After a period of imprisonment she renounced terrorism.
在被囚禁一段时间之后，她宣布放弃恐怖主义。来自柯林斯例句
4. What separates terrorism from other acts of violence?
