Wiktionary

violence

English

edit
English Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Wikiquote en

Etymology

edit
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-der.
Proto-Indo-European *wéyh₁s
Proto-Italic *wīs
Latin vīs
Latin violēns
Proto-Indo-European *-yós
Proto-Italic *-ios
Old Latin -ios
Latin -ius
Latin -ia
Latin violentiabor.
Old French violencebor.
Middle English violence
English violence

    Inherited from Middle English violence, borrowed from Old French violence, borrowed from Latin violentia, from violēns (“violent”) + -ia. See violent. Displaced native Old English stræc.

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Noun

    edit

    violence (countable and uncountable, plural violences)

    1. Extreme force.
      The violence of the storm, fortunately, was more awesome than destructive.
      • 1570, Thomas Naogeorgus, translated by Barnabe Googe, The Popish Kingdome:
        Some others get a rotten wheele, all worne and cast aside,
        Which covered round about with strawe, and tow, they closely hide:
        And caryed to some mountaines top, being all with fire light,
        They hurle it down with violence, when darke appeares the night
      • 1958 September, “Swindon's First Main-Line Diesel Locomotive”, in Railway Magazine, page 603:
        A "passenger/goods" cock is provided in each cab, by which, when placed in the "goods" position, the normal proportional brake application is slowed down. This is for use when hauling an unbraked or partially braked train, and prevents the unbraked stock from running into the locomotive or braked portion of the train with violence.
    2. Physical action which causes destruction, harm, pain, or suffering.
      We try to avoid violence in resolving conflicts.
      • 2003, Diana Abu-Jaber, Arabian Jazz, page 329:
        There is nothing unique or magical about the Middle East; it shares xenophobias and violences with all the rest of the world!
      • 2013 July 19, Mark Tran, “Denied an education by war”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 1:
        One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools […] as children, teachers or school buildings become the targets of attacks. Parents fear sending their children to school. Girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence.
    3. Widespread fighting.
      Violence between the government and the rebels continues.
      • 2021 October 29, Trevor Strunk, “How To Get Away With Making An Ultraviolent Video Game”, in Defector‎[1]:
        But by the early 2000s, we were seeing fewer games like DOOM that dealt in the fantasia of ultraviolence and more games that tried to replicate the everyday violence of military encounters.
    4. (figuratively) Injustice, wrong.
      The translation does violence to the original novel.
      • 2017, Kevin J. O'Brien, The Violence of Climate Change:
        Racism, classism, sexism, ethnocentrism, and heterosexism are also wicked problems of structural violence […]

    Antonyms

    edit
    • (antonym(s) of “action intended to cause destruction, pain or suffering”): peace, nonviolence

    Hypernyms

    edit

    Derived terms

    edit
    edit

    Translations

    edit
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    See also

    edit

    Verb

    edit

    violence (third-person singular simple present violences, present participle violencing, simple past and past participle violenced)

    1. (nonstandard) To subject to violence.
      • 1996, Professor Cathy Nutbrown, Respectful Educators - Capable Learners: Children's Rights and Early Education, SAGE, →ISBN, page 36:
        The key general point is that the idea of the agendered, asexual, aviolenced worker is a fiction; workers and organizational members do not exist in social abstraction; they are gendered, sexualed and violenced, partly by their position  ...
      • 2011, Timothy D. Forsyth, The Alien, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 24:
        And the triad is made complete by she who is violenced by him.
      • 2012, Megan Sweeney, The Story Within Us: Women Prisoners Reflect on Reading, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 46:
        He physically violenced my mother, physically violenced me and my brothers, and was sexually abusive to me until I was in second grade.

    References

    edit

    French

    edit

    Etymology

    edit

    Inherited from Old French violence, from Latin violentia, from the adjective violentus, see violent.

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Noun

    edit

    violence f (plural violences)

    1. (uncountable) violence
    2. (countable) act of violence

    Synonyms

    edit

    Antonyms

    edit

    Derived terms

    edit
    edit

    Further reading

    edit

    Middle English

    edit

    Alternative forms

    edit

    Etymology

    edit
    Etymology tree
    Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-der.
    Proto-Indo-European *wéyh₁s
    Proto-Italic *wīs
    Latin vīs
    Latin violēns
    Proto-Indo-European *-yós
    Proto-Italic *-ios
    Old Latin -ios
    Latin -ius
    Latin -ia
    Latin violentiabor.
    Old French violencebor.
    Middle English violence

      From Old French violence, from Latin violentia.

      Pronunciation

      edit
      • IPA(key): /ˌviːɔlˈɛns(ə)/, /ˌviːəlˈɛns(ə)/, /viəlˈɛns(ə)/, /ˈviːəlɛns(ə)/

      Noun

      edit

      violence (uncountable)

      1. Violence (harmful manual force) or an example of it.
      2. A harmful force of nature; great natural force.
      3. Divine or religious force or strength.
      4. The force or power of one's feelings or mental state.
      5. Powerful or forceful movement or mobility.
      6. Misrule or malgovernance; abuse of authority.
      7. (rare) Beneficial manual force.
      8. (rare) The strength of an ache.
      9. (rare) The whims of chance.

      Descendants

      edit
      • English: violence

      References

      edit

      Old French

      edit

      Etymology

      edit
      Etymology tree
      Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-der.
      Proto-Indo-European *wéyh₁s
      Proto-Italic *wīs
      Latin vīs
      Latin violēns
      Proto-Indo-European *-yós
      Proto-Italic *-ios
      Old Latin -ios
      Latin -ius
      Latin -ia
      Latin violentiabor.
      Old French violence

        Borrowed from Latin violentia.

        Noun

        edit

        violence oblique singular, f (oblique plural violences, nominative singular violence, nominative plural violences)

        1. violence
        2. act of violence

        Descendants

        edit
        Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=violence&oldid=90082142"