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terrific (adj.)[terrific 词源字典]: 1660s, "frightening," from Latin terrificus "causing terror or fear, frightful," from terrere "fill with fear" (see terrible) + root of facere "to make" (see factitious). Weakened sensed of "very great, severe" (as in terrific headache) appeared 1809; inverted colloquial sense of "excellent" began 1888. Related: Terrifically.[terrific etymology, terrific origin, 英语词源]
terrify (v.): 1570s, from Latin terrificare "to frighten, make afraid," from terrificus "causing terror" (see terrific). Related: Terrified; terrifying.
terrine (n.): earthenware dish, 1706, obsolete original form of tureen.
territorial (adj.): 1620s, "of or pertaining to a territory," from Late Latin territorialis, from territorium (see territory). In reference to British regiments, from 1881. In reference to an area defended by an animal, from 1920. Territorial waters is from 1841. Territorial army "British home defense" is from 1908. Territorial imperative "animal need to claim and defend territory" is from 1966.
territoriality (n.): "possession and control of territory," 1839, as a concept in international law, from territorial + -ity. From 1941 in reference to animal behavior.
territory (n.): late 14c., "land under the jurisdiction of a town, state, etc.," probably from Latin territorium "land around a town, domain, district," from terra "earth, land" (see terrain) + -orium, suffix denoting place (see -ory). Sense of "any tract of land, district, region" is first attested c. 1600. Specific U.S. sense of "organized self-governing region not yet a state" is from 1799. Of regions defended by animals from 1774.

"Since -torium is a productive suffix only after verbal stems, the rise of terri-torium is unexplained" [Michiel de Vaan, "Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages"]. An alternative theory, somewhat supported by the vowels of the original Latin word, suggests derivation from terrere "to frighten" (see terrible); thus territorium would mean "a place from which people are warned off."
terror (n.): early 15c., "something that intimidates, an object of fear," from Old French terreur (14c.), from Latin terrorem (nominative terror) "great fear, dread, alarm, panic; object of fear, cause of alarm; terrible news," from terrere "fill with fear, frighten," from PIE root *tres- "to tremble" (see terrible).

From c. 1500 as "fear so great as to overwhelm the mind." Meaning "quality of causing dread" is attested from 1520s. Sense of "a person fancied as a source of terror" (often with deliberate exaggeration, as of a naughty child) is recorded from 1883. Terror bombing first recorded 1941, with reference to German air attack on Rotterdam. Terror-stricken is from 1831. The Reign of Terror in French history (March 1793-July 1794) was the period when the nation was ruled by a faction whose leaders made policy of killing by execution anyone deemed an impediment to their measures; so called in English from 1801. Old English words for "terror" included broga and egesa.
terrorise (v.): chiefly British English spelling of terrorize (q.v.); for suffix, see -ize. Related: Terrorised; terrorising.
terrorism (n.): 1795, in specific sense of "government intimidation during the Reign of Terror in France" (March 1793-July 1794), from French terrorisme, from Latin terror (see terror).
If the basis of a popular government in peacetime is virtue, its basis in a time of revolution is virtue and terror -- virtue, without which terror would be barbaric; and terror, without which virtue would be impotent. [Robespierre, speech in French National Convention, 1794]
General sense of "systematic use of terror as a policy" is first recorded in English 1798 (in reference to the Irish Rebellion of that year). At one time, a word for a certain kind of mass-destruction terrorism was dynamitism (1883); and during World War I frightfulness (translating German Schrecklichkeit) was used in Britain for "deliberate policy of terrorizing enemy non-combatants."
terrorist (n.): in the modern sense, 1944, especially in reference to Jewish tactics against the British in Palestine -- earlier it was used of extremist revolutionaries in Russia who attempted to demoralize the government by terror (1866); and Jacobins during the French Revolution (1795) -- from French terroriste; see terror + -ist (also see terrorism).
The term now usually refers to a member of a clandestine or expatriate organization aiming to coerce an established government by acts of violence against it or its subjects. [OED]
The tendency of one party's terrorist to be another's guerilla or freedom fighter was noted in reference to the British action in Cyprus (1956) and the war in Rhodesia (1973). The word terrorist has been applied, at least retroactively, to the Maquis resistance in occupied France in World War II (as in in the "Spectator," Oct. 20, 1979).
terroristic (adj.): 1842, from terrorist + -ic. Related: Terroristical.
terrorize (v.): "coerce or deter by terror," 1823, from terror + -ize (also see terrorism). Related: Terrorized; terrorizing; terrorization.
terry (n.): "loop raised in pile-weaving, left uncut," 1784, of uncertain origin, possibly an alteration of French tiré "drawn," from past participle of tirer "draw out" (compare German gezogener Sammet "drawn velvet").
terse (adj.): 1590s (implied in tersely), "clean-cut, burnished, neat," from French ters "clean," and directly from Latin tersus "wiped off, clean, neat," from past participle of tergere "to rub, polish, wipe." Sense of "concise or pithy in style or language" is from 1777, which led to a general sense of "neatly concise." The pejorative meaning "brusque" is a fairly recent development. Related: Terseness.
tertiary (adj.): 1650s, "of the third order, rank, degree, etc.," from Latin tertiarius "of or pertaining to a third," from tertius "third, a third," from root of tres "three" (see three). The geological sense (with capital T-) of "era after the Mesozoic" (which formerly was called the Secondary) is attested from 1794, after Italian terziari, used in this sense 1760 by Italian geologist Giovanni Arduino (1714-1795).
tertium quid (n.): something indeterminate between two other things, 1724, Latin, literally "third something," from tertius "third, a third," from the root of tres "three" (see three). A loan-translation of Greek triton ti (Plato), used in alchemy for "unidentified element present in a combination of two known ones." The Latin word also figures in phrases tertium non datur "no third possibility exists," and tertius gaudens "a third party that benefits from conflict between the other two."
terza rima (n.): 1819, Italian, literally "third rhyme." Dante's measure: a-b-a-b-c-b-c-d-c-, etc.
tesla (n.): "unit of magnetic flux density," 1960, from Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), Croatian-born U.S. engineer. Tesla coil is attested from 1896.
tessellated (adj.): 1690s, from Late Latin tessellatus "made of small square stones or tiles," past participle of tesselare, from tessella "small square stone or tile," diminutive of tessera "a cube or square of stone or wood," perhaps from Greek tessera, neuter of tesseres, Ionic variant of tessares "four" (see four), in reference to four corners. Related: Tessellate (v.), a 1791 back-formation (from 1826 as an adjective, 1909 as a noun); tessellating.
tessellation (n.): "minute arrangement of parts or colors," 1650s, noun of action from Late Latin tessellatus (see tessellated).