internecine

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WOTD - 20 September 2006

[edit] English

From Latin internecīvus, deadly, alternatively, Latin inter (between) and necare (to slay).

internecine (not comparable)

Mutually destructive; most often applied to warfare.

Internecine strife in Gaza claimed its most senior victim yesterday when militants assassinated one of the most hated security chiefs there.
Characterized by struggle within a group, usually applied to an ethnic or familial relationship.

The Mongol people were plagued by internecine conflict until Genghis Khan unified them and focused their aggression outwards on other peoples.
- circa 1900, Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, published 2010:
  
  During the year of my engagement — 1869 — while I was out on the lecture platform, the daily letter that came for me generally brought me news from the front — by which expression I refer to the internecine war that was always going on in a friendly way between these two orthographists about the spelling of words.

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