Word of the Day

: April 29, 2007

internecine

adjective in-ter-NESS-een

What It Means

1 : marked by slaughter : deadly; especially : mutually destructive

2 : of, relating to, or involving conflict within a group

internecine in Context

When the three brothers took over the family business together, it didn't take long for the internecine feuding to begin.

Did You Know?

"Internecine" comes from the Latin "internecinus" ("fought to the death" or "destructive"), which traces to the verb "necare" ("to kill") and the prefix "inter-." ("Inter-" usually means "between" or "mutual" in Latin, but it can also indicate the completion of an action.) "Internecine" meant "deadly" when it appeared in English in 1663, but when Samuel Johnson entered it in his dictionary almost a century later, he was apparently misled by "inter-" and defined the word as "endeavouring mutual destruction." Johnson's definition was carried into later dictionaries, and before long his sense was the dominant meaning of the word. "Internecine" developed the association with internal group conflict in the 20th century, and that's the most common sense today.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.