- published: 04 Mar 2016
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The term massacre is derived from the Latin term "mass sacrifice". The first recorded use in English of the word massacre in the name of an event is "Marlowe (c1600), The massacre at Paris" (a reference to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre). Massacre can also be used as a verb, as "To kill (people or, less commonly, animals) in numbers, esp. brutally and indiscriminately", the first usage of which was "1588 J. PENRY Viewe Publ. Wants Wales 65 Men which make no conscience for gaine sake, to breake the law of the æternall, and massaker soules...are dangerous subjects".
The term can also be used metaphorically for events that do not involve any deaths, such as the Saturday Night Massacre - the mass number of dismissals and resignations of political appointees during the Watergate scandal.