quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- commune (n.)




- 1792, from French commune "small territorial divisions set up after the Revolution," from Middle French commune "free city, group of citizens" (12c.), from Medieval Latin communia, noun use of neuter plural of Latin adjective communis, literally "that which is common," from communis (see common (adj.)). The Commune of Paris usurped the government during the Reign of Terror. The word later was applied to a government on communalistic principles set up in Paris in 1871. Adherents of the 1871 government were Communards.
- terrorism (n.)




- 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." - tumbrel (n.)




- mid-15c., "two-wheeled cart for hauling dung, stones, etc.," earlier an instrument of punishment of uncertain type (early 13c.), from Old French tomberel "dump cart" (Modern French tombereau), from tomber "(let) fall or tumble," possibly from a Germanic source (compare Old Norse tumba "to tumble," Old High German tumon "to turn, reel;" see tumble (v.)). Notoriously the name given to the carts used to take victims to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror (though illustrations often show four-wheeled carts, not true tumbrels).