internecine
adjective
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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 the early 17th century, 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.
Examples of internecine in a Sentence
Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 7 Apr. 2025
The politicization of the IC comes with risks beyond just losing staff and fostering internecine battles.
—Peter Schroeder, Foreign Affairs, 17 Jan. 2025
Recent reinventions of the genre have focused on such contemporary concerns as corporate overreach and the complex set of internecine conflicts that inevitably arise within—and threaten to destroy—pluralistic societies.
—Judy Berman, TIME, 9 Jan. 2025
These internecine feuds could be a harbinger for the next Congress, when Republicans will have an even slimmer House majority.
—Jonathan Easley, The Hill, 18 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for internecine
Cite this Entry
“Internecine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/internecine. Accessed 29 May. 2025.
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internecine
adjective
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