The word for today is…

internecine (adj) – 1. Of or relating to struggle within a nation, organisation, or group.

  1. Mutually destructive; ruinous or fatal to both sides.
  2. 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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Peter is a fourth-generation New Zealander, with his mother's and father's folks having arrived in New Zealand in the 1870s. He lives in Lower Hutt with his wife, some cats and assorted computers. His...