Online Encyclopedia

MASSACRE

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 863 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MASSACRE  , a wholesale indiscriminate killing of persons, and also, in a transferred sense, of animals . The word is adopted from the

French; but its origin is obscure . The meaning and the old form macecle seem to point to it being a corruption of the
See also:
Lat. macellum,
See also:
butcher's
See also:
shop or
See also:
shambles, hence
See also:
meat market; this is probably from the root mac-, seen in µhxeoOat, to fight, µaXalpa, sword, and Lat. mactare, to sacrifice . Another derivation connects with the Old Low Ger. matsken, to cut in pieces; cf. mod . Ger. metzeln, to massacre .

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