The Secret Stead is the pen name of a UK-based writer and
The word for today is "war".War -noun
[wawr]
1. Open armed conflict between two or more parties, nations, or states; warfare, as by land, sea, or air, and that state or period of armed hostility or active military operations: The two nations were at war with each other.
2. A particular armed conflict or contest carried on by force of arms, as in a series of battles or campaigns: the First World War.
3. The techniques of armed conflict as a study, science, or profession.
4. Any conflict or contest: the war against crime, a trade war, a war of words, a war for hearts and minds.
5. (modifier, see 10) Of, relating to, resulting from, or characteristic of war: a war hero, war damage, a war story.
6. To have made the most of the opportunities presented to one during wartime.
7. Hurt or knocked about, especially as a result of quarrelling and fighting (British informal, especially of a child).
-proper noun
8. The personification of war, often depicted in armour and riding a red horse; the red rider (the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of a red horse is War).
-verb
9. (intransitive) To conduct a war: to wage war.
-adjective
10. Of, belonging to, used in, or due to war: war preparations.
The word "war" can be found in late Old English "wyrre, werre" meaning "large-scale military conflict" in around 1050, of Norman French origin, which explains the initial "w". In other parts of Europe people were using the Old French "guerre", with meanings attached ranging from "difficulty" and "dispute" to "hostility" and "fight". Apart from the borrowing of “guerilla”, English speakers dropped the initial “g”. Similarly, they chose not to adopt an Icelandic (Viking) word for “war” – "ófriðr", which means “un-peace”, though interestingly the Old Norse word “berserkr” has found its way into the English language as an adjective (to go beserk), which is probably from “bear shirt”, a metaphor for “raging warrior”.
The Old North French "werre" comes from Frankish "*werra", from Proto-Germanic "*werz-a-" (the source also of Old Saxon "werran", Old High German "werran", German "verwirren" meaning "to confuse, perplex"). This is said to be from the Proto-Indo-European "*wers-" meaning "to confuse, mix up," suggesting the original sense was to "bring into confusion". That there seems to have been no common Germanic word for "war" at the dawn of historical times is of interest, with the people who speak the modern version of the language now known for their military might in the world wars of the 20th century.
The reason the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian turned to the Germanic for a "war" word, too, is possibly down to the Romanic peoples wanting to avoid the Latin "bellum", because its form tended to merge with "bello-" (beautiful), opting for one rooted in confusion instead. Old English had many poetic words for "war" (all common in personal names), but the usual one to translate the Latin "bellum" was "gewin" (struggle, strife) related to "gewinnan" (to gain or succeed by struggling, conquer, obtain) which gives us the word "win" to describe being victorious today.
The first written source for “war” in the Oxford English Dictionary comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 1140, written as “uuerre" (the English “w” really was a double-u before it became a “w”). From circa 1200 onwards it began to be used in reference to particular wars, and by the late 12th century as a "state of active opposition or hostility" in a community or between persons. By the mid 14th century the word was used as "fighting as an activity or profession" (as in man-of-war), and the expression in war and peace "at all times" is attested from the late 14th century.
Once picked up by the pen, our preoccupation with this man-made "confusion" means it has taken centre stage in many a literary piece. Shakespeare had a lot to say on the subject, though one of his famous phrases “O war, thou son of hell” is said by a not very famous character, Young Clifford, in Henry VI. The Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) is credited with one of the most quoted lines on conflict: “War is the continuation of policy [by] other means", while the phrase "war is hell" is attested by 1850 and commonly attributed to U.S. Civil War Gen. William T. Sherman (1820-1891), although it is credited to Napoleon elsewhere.
A Passage to War
In modern usage, because of the historical burden the word now carries, and the technological advancements that make it so apocalyptic, politicians often seem reluctant to actually use the term. Apparently, some wars are not wars. Even when a nation has declared war, as Israel did after 7 October 2023, some journalists used phrases like "combat zone" rather than "war zone", though now with the passage of time it is termed as a war. Perhaps there is a sense (although technically incorrect) that a "real" war is one where two nations battle each other, as we have seen in this century, with Ukraine and Russia and the US-Israel war with Iran.
The word "war" has also taken the form of a proper noun. The Rider on the Red Horse is a symbolic figure found in the Book of Revelation, specifically in Revelation 6:3-4. attributed to John of Patmos, and generally regarded as dating from about 95 AD. The figure is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, each of whom represents different aspects of divine judgment, and though the text only provides a name for the fourth horseman, subsequent commentary often identifies the rider as a personification of War.
Thus, humanity knows war is not beautiful, with the obvious constant being large numbers of people using weapons to try to kill each other. War is confusion, war is biblical, war is hell, but as a continuation of policy, whether on horseback or in a Hummel, we have ridden with this rider since time immemorial, and if current events at time of writing are anything to go by, it does not look as if we will be getting off the saddle anytime soon.
War truly is a rodeo, of sorts, as paradoxically it has also furthered human progress, but, really, in this day and age, as the lyrics from a song by Edwin Starr go: War, what's it good for?
Published 28 March, 2026
