Origin of term

See also: Terror and State terrorism

"Terrorism" comes from the French word terrorisme,^[10] and originally referred specifically to state terrorism as practiced by the French government during the Reign of terror. The French word terrorisme in turn derives from the Latin verb terreō meaning “I frighten”.^[11] 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.^[12][13] After the Jacobins lost power, the word "terrorist" became a term of abuse.^[6] Although "terrorism" originally referred acts committed by a government, currently it usually refers to the killing of innocent people^[14] by a non-government group in such a way as to create a media spectacle.^[15] This meaning can be traced back to Sergey Nechayev, who described himself as a "terrorist".^[16] 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".^[17]