Terminology:
General Napoléon Bonaparte quelling
the 5 October 1795 royalist rebellion in Paris, in
front of the Église Saint-Roch, Saint-Honoré Street, paving the way for Directory government.
The Latin
verb terrere means: to frighten.[17] The
English word 'terror', just like the French terreur,
derives from that Latin word and means from of old: fright, alarm, anguish, (mortal) fear, panic.
Oxford
English Dictionary reportedly states that the word 'terrorist' (French: terroriste) was invented in the year 1794, during
the French Revolution. The first meaning of the word
'terrorist' was then: adherent or supporter of the Jacobins.[18] Apparent
from the context given in an article in the Guardian, the
indication 'Jacobins' in that Oxford definition bears on the group around Maximilien Robespierre, also called 'Montagnards', that after 1794 were held responsible by some
commentators for the repressive and violent government over France between June
1793 and July 1794, a period analogously labeled 'Reign
of Terror' by commentators.[18] The
given definition in Oxford Dictionary shows, the term 'terrorist' in its first
use was meant as abusive term for someone's political or historical ideas or
allegiances, not as description of his personal actions.[18]
In December
1795, Edmund Burke used the word "Terrorists"
in a description of the new French
government called 'Directory':
"At length, after a terrible struggle, the [Directory] Troops prevailed
over the Citizens (…) To secure them further, they
have a strong corps of irregulars, ready armed. Thousands of those Hell-hounds
called Terrorists, whom they had shut up in Prison on their last
Revolution, as the Satellites of Tyranny, are let loose on the people."[19]
Clearly, in this case, Burke used 'Terrorists' as disparaging labeling of armed
troops hired by a government he loathes.
French
historian Sophie Wahnich(French) distinguishes
between the revolutionary terror of the French
Revolution and the terrorists of the September 11 attacks:
Revolutionary
terror is not terrorism. To make a moral equivalence between the Revolution's
year II and September 2001 is historical and philosophical nonsense . . . The
violence exercised on 11 September 2001 aimed neither at equality nor liberty.
Nor did the preventive war announced by the president of the United States.[20][21]
