Talk:internecine

Regarding the example of 'Mongol people', I'd say this is on historically shaky ground. One could argue very well that before Genghis Khan, there was no Mongol people, only Mongol-speaking (as far as that goes) tribes. How could one speak of internecine then? 83.83.1.229 11:56, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

It's just a sentence providing an example of how the word 'internecine' can be used. Our example sentences are not intended to be true statements of facts. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 12:32, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

Well, you're right..but still... 83.83.1.229 13:40, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

(And to be honest, the 'aggression' part seems a bit out of place/outdated as well). Why not make the sentence a bit more simplistic and say something like 'the socialists were plagued by internecine conflict'. 83.83.1.229 13:42, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

etymology

Merriam-Webster:

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. --Espoo (talk) 19:34, 12 April 2016 (UTC)