The word for today is…
internecine (adj) – 1. Of or relating to struggle within a nation, organisation, or group.
- Mutually destructive; ruinous or fatal to both sides.
- Characterised by bloodshed or carnage.
Source : The Free Dictionary
Etymology : 1660s, “deadly, destructive,” from Latin internecinus “very deadly, murderous, destructive,” from internecare “kill or destroy,” from inter + necare “kill” (from PIE root *nek- “death”).
Considered by OED as misinterpreted in Johnson’s Dictionary [1755], which defined it as “endeavouring mutual destruction,” but a notion of “mutually destructive” has been imported into the word in English because in English inter- usually conveys the idea of “mutual.” The Latin prefix is said to have had here only an intensive sense; “the Latin word meant merely of or to extermination … without implying that of both parties” [Fowler].
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