Carl's answer ought to suffice, but for those who want to see dictionary entries:
"Terra" (Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary): <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2347898>.
>[2] tres- (-> terrorist) means "to tremble"; Latin terrere, to
>frighten (i.e., cause to tremble); related to Skr. tras (tremble)
>and Russian tryasti (shake).
"Terreo" (Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary): <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2347902>.
"Terror" (Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary): <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0060%3Aentry%3D%2316264>.
To understand why "tre-" gets to be "ter-," it's necessary to know the principle of metathesis: "Metathesis is a term used in linguistics to refer to the transposition of elements in a word or sentence. When the change occurs to two adjacent sounds in a word, it frequently involves the letters l or r and a vowel. Two historical examples of metathesis are Modern English bird and horse from Old English brid and hros. Over time the metathesized pronunciations became standard, and the spellings were changed to conform to the new pronunciations" ("Metathesis," The American Heritage® Book of English Usage, <http://www.bartleby.com/64/C007/0131.html>, 1996).
>[lbo-talk] etymology
>Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
>Fri Jul 1 08:31:55 PDT 2005
<snip>
>Any etmyology experts on this list? Some hyper-PC dude on the WBAI
>producers' list claims that "terrorist" comes from the same root as
>"terrestrial" - because terrorist = dirt. Dictionaries do not
>confirm this, but...
As Carl ably explained, terror doesn't originate in terra. Even if it were the case, though, the meaning of the word "terrorist" still wouldn't equal "dirt." The word terrine's root is terra, terrine being made in a terrine (which became a tureen in English), (originally) an earthenware (which is now made of all sorts of materials). But a person eating a terrine doesn't think she is tasting dirt. :-> -- Yoshie
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