offension

English

Etymology

From Old French [Term?], from Latin offensio (“an offense”).

Noun

offension

1. (obsolete) Assault; attack, offensive; offense.
   • c. 1517–1587, John Foxe, "The Primitive Church of Rome", reprinted in The Acts and Monuments [...] with a preliminary diss. by George Townsend (1841), page 84:

     [...] they nourish wicked adultery and much fornication, they fill the world with offensions and bastards, and give great occasion of murdering [...]

   • a. 1955, Karl Marx (original author), Manuskripte über die polnische Frage: (1863–1864), Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG (2020, →ISBN), page 183:

     Napoleon had possessed himself of those very points, which would serve him as a basis of offension against Prussia and Austria. Nicholas acted in his spirit, when he fortified those points by a chain of fortresses.

References

• “offension”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.