atrocity (n.)

1530s, "enormous wickedness," from French atrocité or directly from Latin atrocitatem (nominative atrocitas) "cruelty, fierceness, harshness," noun of quality from atrox "fierce, cruel, frightful," from PIE *atro-ek-, from root *ater- "fire" + root *okw- "to see;" thus "of fiery or threatening appearance." The meaning "atrocious deed" is from 1793.

also from 1530s

Entries linking to atrocity

atrocious (adj.)

1660s, "heinous, extremely criminal, enormously cruel," from stem of Latin atrox "fierce, savage, cruel" (see atrocity) + -ous. The weakened colloquial sense of "very bad" is by late 19c. Related: Atrociously; atrociousness.

*ater-

*āter-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "fire." It forms all or part of: atrabiliary; atrabilious; atrium; atrocious.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Old Persian atar "fire;" Latin ater "black" ("blackened by fire"), atrox "frightful" ("of fiery or threatening appearance").

*okw-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to see."

It forms all or part of: amblyopia; antique; antler; atrocity; autopsy; binocle; binocular; biopsy; catoptric; Cyclops; daisy; enoptomancy; eye; eyelet; ferocity; hyperopia; inoculate; inveigle; monocle; monocular; myopia; necropsy; ocular; oculist; oculus; oeillade; ogle; ophthalmo-; optic; optician; optics; optometry; panoptic; panopticon; Peloponnesus; pinochle; presbyopia; prosopopeia; stereoptican; synopsis; triceratops; ullage; wall-eyed; window.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit akshi "the eye; the number two," Greek osse "(two) eyes," opsis "a sight;" Old Church Slavonic oko, Lithuanian akis, Latin oculus, Greek okkos, Tocharian ak, ek, Armenian akn "eye."

Trends of atrocity

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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inhumanity

"barbarous cruelty," late 15c., from French inhumanité (14c.) or directly from Latin inhumanitatem (nominative inhumanitas) "inhuman conduct, savageness; incivility, rudeness," noun of quality from inhumanus "inhuman, savage, cruel" (see inhuman). And Man, whose heav'n-erected f

enormity

late 15c., "transgression, crime; irregularity," from Old French enormité "extravagance, atrocity, heinous sin," from Latin...

gramophone

Despised by linguistic purists (Weekley calls gramophone "An atrocity formed by reversing phonogram") who tried at least...

barbarism

mid-15c., "uncivilized or rude nature, ignorance or want of culture," from French barbarisme "barbarism of language" (13c.), from Latin barbarismus, from Greek barbarismos "foreign speech," from barbarizein "to do as a foreigner does," from barbaros (see barbarian (n.)). On

cruelty

c. 1200, cruelte, "indifference to, or pleasure taken in, the distress or suffering of any sentient being," from Old French crualté (12c., Modern French cruauté), from Latin crudelitatem (nominative crudelitas) "cruelty," from crudelis "rude, unfeeling; cruel, hard-hearted," rela

outrage

c. 1300, "evil deed, offense, crime; affront, indignity, act not within established or reasonable limits," of food, drink, dress, speech, etc., from Old French outrage "harm, damage; insult; criminal behavior; presumption, insolence, overweening" (12c.), earlier oltrage (11c.), f

congruent

early 15c., "suitable, proper, harmoniously joined or related," from Latin congruentem (nominative congruens) "agreeing, fit, suitable," present participle of congruere "agree, correspond with," literally "to come together," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see con-

pyramid

1550s "massive monumental stone structure of polygonl plan, the sides of which slope in planes to a common apex," also a geometrical solid resembling this, (earlier in Latin form piramis, late 14c., or nativized in Middle English as piram), from French pyramide (Old French pirami

purpose

c. 1300, purpus, "intention, aim, goal; object to be kept in view; proper function for which something exists," from Anglo-French purpos, Old French porpos "an aim, intention" (12c.), from porposer "to put forth," from por- "forth" (from a variant of Latin pro- "forth;" see pur-)

confusion

c. 1300, confusioun, "overthrow, ruin," from Old French confusion "disorder, confusion, shame" (11c.) and directly from Latin confusionem (nominative confusio) "a mingling, mixing, blending; confusion, disorder," noun of action from past-participle stem of confundere "to pour tog

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updated on September 28, 2022

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Dictionary entries near atrocity

Atreus

atria

atrial

atrium

atrocious

atrocity

atrophic

atrophy

atropine

Atropos

attaboy