section_path: Etymology and definition/Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The term "terrorism" itself was originally used to describe the actions of the Jacobin Club during the " Reign of Terror " in the French Revolution. "Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible", said Jacobin leader Maximilien Robespierre. In 1795, Edmund Burke denounced the Jacobins for letting "thousands of those hell-hounds called Terrorists... loose on the people" of France. John Calvin 's rule over Geneva in the 16th century has also been described as a reign of terror.
  
  The terms "terrorism" and "terrorist" gained renewed currency in the 1970s as a result of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Basque separatist group, ETA, and the operations of groups such as the Red Army Faction. Leila Khaled was described as a terrorist in a 1970 issue of Life magazine. A number of books on terrorism were published in the 1970s. The topic came further to the fore after the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings and again after the 2001 September 11 attacks and the 2002 Bali bombings.