Origin

Origin of term
See also: State terrorism
"Terror" comes from a Latin terrere meaning "to frighten".[12] The terror cimbricus was a panic and state of emergency in Rome in response to the approach of warriors of the Cimbri tribe in 105 BC. The Jacobins cited this precedent when imposing a Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.[13][14] After the Jacobins lost power, the word "terrorist" became a term of abuse.[8] Although the Reign of Terror was imposed by a government, in modern times "terrorism" usually refers to the killing of innocent people[15] by a private group in such a way as to create a media spectacle.[16] This meaning can be traced back to Sergey Nechayev, who described himself as a "terrorist".[17] Nechayev founded the Russian terrorist group "People's Retribution" (Народная расправа) in 1869.

In November 2004, a United Nations Secretary General report described terrorism as any act "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act".[18]