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A.Word.A.Day--internecine internecine (in-tuhr-NES-een) adjective 1. Of or relating to conflict within a group or nation. 2. Mutually destructive. 3. Characterized by bloodshed or slaughter. [From Latin internecinus (deadly), from internecare (to slaughter), from inter- + necare (to kill), from nex-, nec- (death). A few other words derived from the same root are pernicious, noxious, obnoxious, and necrosis. Some positive words originating from the same root are nectar, nectarine, innocent, and innocuous.] The original meaning of today's term was "deadly", from the prefix inter- (all the way to, completely) + necare (to kill), from nec- (death). While writing his 1755 dictionary, the great lexicographer Samuel Johnson erroneously believed the prefix inter- implied "between" (as in "international") and defined internecine as "endeavoring mutual destruction" that, thanks to his popular dictionary, became the primary sense of the word. "Jones also gives us a portrait of how Enlightenment-era French citizens clamored for self-rule, and an account of the grisly, internecine feuding that led to the rise of Napoleon in 1799." Washington Is Also Reading; The Washington Post; Mar 30, 2003. "During the late 1980s, the veteran Amal militia began an internecine war against a radical Shi'ite upstart group named Hizbullah." Matthew Gutman; Lawyer: Obeid, Dirani Not Linked to Arad; Jerusalem Post (Israel); Nov 9, 2003. This week's theme: words formed in error. X-Bonus Why does no one confess his sins? Because he is yet in them. It is for a man who has awoke from sleep to tell his dreams. -Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)

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