| 释义 |
terrorist|ˈtɛrərɪst|
[a. F. terroriste, f. L. terror terror: see -ist.]
1. As a political term:
a. Applied to the Jacobins and their agents and partisans in the French Revolution, esp. to those connected with the Revolutionary tribunals during the ‘Reign of Terror’.
1795Hist. in Ann. Reg. 169 The terrorists, as they were justly denominated, from the cruel and impolitic maxim of keeping the people in implicit subjection by a merciless severity. 1795Burke Regic. Peace iv. Wks. IX. 75 Thousands of those Hell-hounds called Terrorists..are let loose on the people. 1818Herve Beauties of Paris II. 296 (Jod.) He assisted La Fayette in endeavouring to defend the king from the terrorists. 1877Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. ii. 83 That pithy chapter in Machiavelli's ‘Prince’ which treats of cruelty and clemency..anticipates the defence of the Terrorists.
b. Any one who attempts to further his views by a system of coercive intimidation.
In early use also applied spec. to members of one of the extreme revolutionary societies in Russia. The term now usually refers to a member of a clandestine or expatriate organization aiming to coerce an established government by acts of violence against it or its subjects.
1866Fitzpatrick Sham Sqr. 180 Miss G―, the daughter of a Wexford terrorist, directed many of the tortures which were so extensively practised. 1883Harper's Mag. Jan. 315/2 To [Russian] Terrorists it guarantees..security on condition of a..pledge to abandon.. the revolutionary party. 1905Westm. Gaz. 20 Sept. 2/1 Several notables are believed to be more or less implicated in the actions of the Terrorists. 1947Ann. Reg. 1946 60 The latest and worst of the outrages committed by the Jewish terrorists in Palestine—the blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. 1956H. Nicolson Diary 29 Oct. (1968) 311 When people rise against foreign oppression, they are hailed as patriots and heroes; but the Greeks whom we are shooting and hanging in Cyprus are dismissed as terrorists. What cant! 1969E. J. Hobsbawm Bandits viii. 101 The war between police and terrorists is one of nerves as well as of guns. Whoever is more frightened has lost the initiative. 1977P. Johnson Enemies of Society xviii. 240 The Baader-Meinhof gang of ultra-Left terrorists. 1979Spectator 20 Oct. 20/1 (Advt.), In this enthralling autobiography the author of Maquis..retravels the course of his life from his childhood to his war-time exploits as a terrorist in the Resistance.
2. Dyslogistically: One who entertains, professes, or tries to awaken or spread a feeling of terror or alarm; an alarmist, a scaremonger.
1803Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) I. 26/1 The terrorists of this country are so extremely alarmed at the power of Bonaparte. 1805W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XIX. 570 Some book of the religious terrorists, which tended to infuse the alarm of foul perdition. 1861Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. Part. III. clxxv. 209 What becomes of the pretended terrorists at home who affect to be alarmed for the condition of every white female in the Antilles?
3. attrib.
1801Hel. M. Williams Fr. Rep. I. xi. 113 The defeat of the terrorist-party. Ibid. xvi. 194 Under the terrorist government of France. 1856Goldw. Smith in Oxford Ess. 295 An advanced and slightly terrorist school of philanthropists. 1884in Pall Mall G. 11 Sept. 7/2 In the struggle we are engaged in with the terrorist and autocratic Governments of Europe, and especially with that of Russia. 1937Koestler Spanish Testament vi. 132 The civilian population{ddd}whose sympathies they could but alienate by terrorist acts. 1955Britannia Bk. of Year 263/2, 756 Africans executed..incl. 219 for Mau Mau murders and 508 for other terrorist crimes. 1979R. Perry Bishop's Pawn viii. 130 We weren't dealing with ordinary kidnappers. We were faced by a relatively sophisticated terrorist organization. 1983Listener 19 May 8/1 Terrorist theory..says that the brigades should be subdivided into tight terrorist cells.
Hence terroˈristic, -ˈristical adjs., characterized by or practising terrorism; also terroˈristically.
1850Bentley's Miscell. XXVIII. 407 This was the Government styled ‘terroristical’ by the Austrians! 1875Poste Gaius i. Comm. (ed. 2) 81 This terroristic law..was not abrogated till the time of Justinian. 1884Stepniak in Contemp. Rev. Mar. 327 The gradual progress of the terroristic tendency under the influence of Government repression. 1887Century Mag. Nov. 54 The leaders of the ‘terroristic’ or extreme revolutionary party. 1919M. Beer Hist. Brit. Socialism I. ii. ii. 103 The terroristic acts and wars into which that social earthquake had degenerated. 1945R. Hargreaves Enemy at Gate 308 The terroristic procedure associated in these days with Nazism, Fascism and Bolshevism. 1951McWhiney & Simkins in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 590/2 The klansmen used the methods of violence as extensively as any of the other white terroristic organizations. 1972Econ. & Polit. Weekly 1 Apr. 692/1 Consisting almost exclusively of guerilla squads, they [sc. the Naxals] moved secretively and acted terroristically. 1977Time 26 Sept. 9/1 The background of terroristic acts is connected with a deep hatred of bourgeois society. |