casus belli

See also: Casus Belli

English

Etymology

From Latin cāsus (“case”) + bellī (“of war”). The English homographic plural casus belli is also taken from Latin, where the plural of this phrase would be cāsūs bellī, with a long vowel ū in the first word, as is typical of the nominative plural of fourth-declension nouns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪ.səs ˈbɛl.aɪ/, /- ˈbɛl.i/
• (plural) IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪ.suːs ˈbɛl.aɪ/, /- ˈbɛl.i/

Noun

casus belli (plural casus belli or casus bellis)

1. An act seen as justifying or causing a war; an act of war.
   • 1897, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 664:

     The Executive, however, can do many acts which would constitute a casus belli, and thus indirectly result in war; but this does not imply in the Executive a concurrent power to declare war, and the war which would result would be one declared by a foreign power.

   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 309:

     Algiers seethed, and this was the casus belli for the ‘ultras’ to attempt a general strike.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 138:

     Furthermore, if the French had airily waved away one potential casus belli, more than enough causes of potential conflict remained embedded in the Aix-la-Chapelle Treaty.

   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 290:

     Had Saddam taken only the Rumaila oil field and the Bubiyan and Warba islands, there would have been no casus belli.

   • 2022 March 1, Mary Elise Sarotte, “I’m a Cold War Historian. We’re in a Frightening New Era.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     And Washington needs to communicate clearly with not only its allies but also the American public on the risks involved if spillover from Ukraine into Article 5 territory verges on a casus belli — an event that provokes a war.

Translations

act causing war

• Arabic: ذَرِيعَةُ الْحَرْبِ f (ḏarīʕatu al-ḥarbi)
• Armenian: կազուս բելլի (hy) (kazus belli)
• Belarusian: ка́зус бэ́лі m (kázus béli)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 戰爭藉口／战争借口 (zhànzhēng jièkǒu), 開戰理由／开战理由 (kāizhàn lǐyóu)

• Finnish: sodan aihe, casus belli (fi)
• French: casus belli (fr) m
• Georgian: კაზუს ბელი (ḳazus beli)
• German: Casus Belli m, Kriegsgrund (de) m
• Greek: αφορμή πολέμου f (aformí polémou)
• Italian: casus belli m
• Japanese: 開戦理由 (かいせんりゆう, kaisen riyū), 開戦事由 (かいせんじゆう, kaisen jiyū)
• Korean: 개전 이유(開戰理由) (gaejeon iyu), 개전 리유(開戰理由) (gaejeon riyu) (North Korea), 전쟁 명분(戰爭名分) (jeonjaeng myeongbun)
• Latin: cāsus bellī m
• Persian: بهانهٔ جنگ (bahâne-ye jang), کیسوس بللی (keysus belli)
• Polish: casus belli (pl) n
• Portuguese: casus belli m
• Russian: ка́зус бе́лли (ru) m (kázus bɛ́lli)
• Thai: เหตุแห่งสงคราม (hèet-hɛ̀ɛng-sǒng-kraam)
• Ukrainian: ка́зус бе́ллі m (kázus bélli)

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin.

Noun

casus belli m (invariable)

1. casus belli

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin cāsus bellī.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈka.zuz ˈbɛl.li/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlli

Noun

casus belli n (indeclinable)

1. (international law) casus belli

Further reading

• casus belli in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• casus belli in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin cāsus bellī (literally “case of war”).

Noun

casus belli m (plural casuses bellis)

1. casus belli