Internecine
/ˌɪntəˈnɛsaɪn/noun
Involving or destructive to both sides in a conflict; mutually ruinous.
Did you know?Internecine comes from Latin inter- (“between, among”) + necare (“to kill”), and it originally described slaughter inside a group before modern English narrowed it to mutual destruction.
Etymological Timeline
Latin
Latin
internecīnus
“deadly, destructive, murderous”
Latin
Latin
internecāre
“to kill off, destroy utterly”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*nek-
“to kill”
Middle English
English
internecine
“deadly; characterized by destruction within a group”
Modern English
English
internecine
“mutually destructive, especially within a group or faction”
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