An archaic or rare term meaning to war against, rebel against, or oppose with force.
From Latin de- (against, down) combined with bellum (war), directly paralleling the structure of modern words like 'rebel.' This Latin root is the source of our words 'war,' 'belligerent,' and 'bellicose.'
This word is so archaic it barely appears in modern English, but it preserves the Latin word 'bellum' (war) which is the root for an entire family of English words about conflict—and it reminds us that 'de-' originally meant 'against' before it came to mean 'remove.'
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