| 释义 |
internecine, a.|ɪntəˈniːsɪn, -saɪn|
[ad. L. internecīn-us murderous, destructive, f. internecium slaughter, destruction, f. internecāre: see next.
App. first used as a rendering of L. internecīnum bellum, in Butler's Hudibras (to which also is due the unetymological pronunciation, instead of inˈternĕcine). On this authority entered by Johnson in his Dictionary, with an incorrect explanation, due to association with words like interchange, intercommunion, etc. in which inter- has the force of ‘mutual’, ‘each other’. From J. the word has come into later dictionaries and 19th c. use, generally in the Johnsonian sense.]
1. orig. Deadly, destructive, characterized by great slaughter. internecine war, war for the sake of slaughter, war of extermination, war to the death.
1663Butler Hud. i. i. 774 Th' ægyptians worshipp'd Dogs, and for Their Faith made internecine [ed. 1674 fierce and zealous] war. 1843Gladstone Glean. V. i. 60 Rome has written on her banners..the alternatives only of internecine war or absolute surrender. 1853Kingsley Hypatia Pref. 9 Contending against that Gospel in which it had recognised..its internecine foe. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 170 The war was henceforward, in the literal sense of the word, internecine.
2. esp. (In modern use.) Mutually destructive, aiming at the slaughter or destruction of each other.
1755Johnson, Internecine, endeavouring mutual destruction. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. iii. iv, The real death-grapple of war and internecine duel, Greek meeting Greek. 1859Tennent Ceylon II. 24 An internecine war now raged for years in Ceylon. 1868Kingsley Christm. Day 62 Living things Compete in internecine greed. 1875Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 833 ‘The internecine war’, he [Nägeli] says, ‘is obviously most severe between the species and races that are most nearly related’. 1882Farrar Early Chr. I. 556 Eight thousand Zealots, who stabbed each other in internecine massacre. |