I realize the there has always been “terrorists”, but when did the term enter the lexicon? Who were the first people to be called “terrorists”
Interestingly, Merriam-Webster’s gives the first use as 1795 - perhaps there might be an association with the “Reign of Terror” in revolutionary France.
The Shorter OED confirms this opinion, saying:
Terrorist. 1795 1. As a political term: a. Applied to the Jacobins and their agents and partisans in the French Revolution. b. Anyone who attempts to further his views by a system of coercive intimidation; spec. applied to members of one of the extreme revolutionary societies in Russia 1866. 2. An alarmist, a scaremonger 1803.
Definition no. 2 is interesting. I hadn’t heard that one before.