[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.’
1795. Hist., 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.
1795. Burke, Regic. Peace, iv. Wks. IX. 75. Thousands of those Hell-hounds called Terrorists … are let loose on the people.
1818. Herve, Beauties of Paris, II. 296 (Jod.). He assisted La Fayette in endeavouring to defend the king from the terrorists.
1877. Morley, 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; spec. applied to members of one of the extreme revolutionary societies in Russia.
1866. Fitzpatrick, Sham Sqr., 180. Miss G——, the daughter of a Wexford torrorist, directed many of the tortures which were so extensively practised.
1883. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 315/2. To [Russian] Terrorists it guarantees … security on condition of a … pledge to abandon … the revolutionary party.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 20 Sept., 2/1. Several notables are believed to be more or less implicated in the actions of the Terrorists.
2. Dyslogistically: One who entertains, professes, or tries to awaken or spread a feeling of terror or alarm; an alarmist, a scaremonger.
1803. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1859), I. 26/1. The terrorists of this country are so extremely alarmed at the power of Bonaparte.
1805. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XIX. 570. Some book of the religious terrorists, which tended to infuse the alarm of foul perdition.
1861. Gen. P. Thomson, 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.
1801. Hel. M. Williams, Fr. Rep., I. xi. 113. The defeat of the terrorist party. Ibid., xvi. 194. Under the terrorist government of France.
1856. Goldw. Smith, in Oxford Ess., 295. An advanced and slightly terrorist school of philanthropists.
1884. in 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.
Hence Terroristic, -istical adjs., characterized by or practising terrorism.
1850. Bentley’s Miscell., XXVIII. 407. This was the Government styled ‘terroristical’ by the Austrians!
1875. Poste, Gaius, I. Comm. (ed. 2), 81. This terroristic law … was not abrogated till the time of Justinian.
1884. Sterniak, in Contemp. Rev., March, 327. The gradual progress of the terroristic tendency under the influence of Government repression.
1887. Century Mag., Nov., 54. The leaders of the ‘terroristic’ or extreme revolutionary party.
