the.com/massacre
The mass killing of people who had little or no ability to defend themselves.
means The deliberate, indiscriminate killing of a large number of people who have little or no ability to defend themselves.
from From French massacre, likely tracing back to a Germanic root meaning butcher's block or slaughterhouse — a word originally about carcasses before it became a word about corpses. It entered English in the 1500s already carrying its full horror, used for the wholesale slaughter of people rather than livestock.
- etymology
- French for butcher's chopping block
- key distinction
- implies victims couldn't fight back
- loaded word
- one side's battle is another's massacre